Maynard's BlogWire
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Newt Gingrich Nails the Washington Insider Problem
by Maynard on March 28, 2016**Bumped up from TAMWire. Posted by Maynard** This shows some excerpts from a longer interview with Newt, and adds some editorializing. It says some nice things about Trump, which I find interesting and encouraging, although I’m not on the Trump train. This is worth reading, in that I think this captures the essence of what’s gone wrong in the Washington mindset. And for myself, I’ll say that if I knew Newt was going to be an influential power within a Trump administration, I’d start to feel almost comfortable with the concept. Via American Spectator. You can’t make it up. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gave an interview to reporter Isaac Chotiner of Slate the other day. For a vivid illustration...
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Obama: Economically Successful Israel Makes Middle East Peace More Difficult
by Maynard on March 24, 2016Here we go again. “Obama: Economically Successful Israel Makes Middle East Peace More Difficult”. Obama is quoted: “…because Israeli society has been so successful economically, it has, I think, from a position of strength, been less willing to make concessions. On the other hand, the Palestinians, because of weakness, have not the political cohesion and organization to enter into negotiations and feel like they can get what they need.” The utter ignorance and stupidity of Obama’s remarks boggle the mind. To this shallow man, the conflict is all about economics (meaning it must be addressed by “redistribution”) and organization (meaning redistribution must be under the control community organizers, such as — ahem! — himself). And it seems the “people being...
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How the New York Times Showed Up Trump as a Genius! (Really!)
by Maynard on March 24, 2016Readers of the New York Times are the smartest guys in the room. You know it’s true because they’ll tell you so themselves. Here’s a recent headline that expresses the smug superiority of the smugly superior: “Donald Trump Finds New City to Insult: Brussels”.
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Campus Fascism Alert: Show Us Your Zits! (Or You’re a Racist!)
by Maynard on March 1, 2016So that happened. A couple of kids at the University of Wisconsin exfoliated their faces. They posted a Snapchat selfie displaying their faces covered with exfoliation glop. A Chancellor, having uncovered another hate crime, rushed to condemn the little racists on a public forum...
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Hillary Pledges to Jail Her Critics
by Maynard on February 11, 2016Does everyone remember Citizens United v. FEC? It’s the SCOTUS ruling that overturned the McCain-Feingold Act. Liberals complained loudly about the dangers of corporate money in politics (I think it’s fair to say we’re all concerned about money in politics), completely ignoring the fundamental facts of the specific case: In particular, that an independent organization had made a film critical of a powerful politician (“Hillary the Movie”), and the government tried to suppress that film. This was the very definition of political censorship, and it’s chilling to think that four of the nine Justices were okay with it. Hillary’s latest words have prompted a Slate writer to reluctantly acknowledge that we’ve got a point. This is in an opinion piece,...
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Guerrilla Artist “Sabo” Crashes Bernie Sanders’ Art Expo!
by Maynard on January 28, 2016Calling all artists! Bernie is revolting, and YOU can help!
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Turning a Blind Eye to Afghan Child Rape: Hey, Obama, THIS is Not Who We Are
by Maynard on January 27, 2016This is not a new report (it was hitting the news last September), but it juxtaposes in a disturbing way against Mr. Obama and his sneering dismissal of "This is not who we are" in response to sensible concerns about imported Islamic terrorism.
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Britain Debates Banning Trump: The Punch Line
by Maynard on January 19, 2016You've heard the story. A report in The Hill: "UK Parliament debates banning 'crazy' Trump"
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Ben Franklin’s Answer to a Govt Program that Sent Criminals to America
by Maynard on November 18, 2015In the years leading up to the American Revolution, the colonists came to see themselves as subjugated by a powerful, unrepresentative government. In a 1751 letter to the Pennsylvania Gazette, Benjamin Franklin (signing himself "Americanus") satirically attacked the British practice of emptying their prisons and sending criminals to the colonies. He expresses sentiments that are remarkably similar to our modern distrust of and disgust with today's Washington: Smug superiority, indifference to the will of the people or the fate of the people, and the arbitrary and overriding exercise of power.
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Ten Commandments Removed from Oklahoma Capitol in the Dead of Night
by Maynard on October 7, 2015The script is a familiar one. The ACLU brings a lawsuit. A Court declares the display of the Ten Commandments violates the Estblishment Clause, which prevents Congress from establishing a state religion. And then the workmen come in the dead of night and spirit the offending article away. The next day, a void prevails. Witness the triumph of our modern enlightenment. Isaiah 29:15-16 comes to mind. 15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? 16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that...
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In Defense of the Iran Deal, Kerry Pleads American Impotency and Foreign Supremacy
by Maynard on August 13, 2015Kerry can't defend the Iran deal on its merits, so instead he tells us that America is weak and impotent and can neither lead nor act independently, and therefore we must take our marching orders from China.
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Theories of Taxes
by Maynard on April 15, 2015(Bumped from the Bush era.) Maynard contemplates Lady Godiva (the original tax protestor!) and tax policies of the modern era.
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The EPA Wants To Watch You Shower! (And What Maynard Is Going To Do About It!)
by Maynard on March 18, 2015The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants hotels to monitor how much time its guests spend in the shower. The agency is spending $15,000 to create a wireless system that will track how much water a hotel guest uses to get them to “modify their behavior.”...
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Helpful Hillary’s Useless Mountain of *Paper* Email
by Maynard on March 10, 2015...When pressed for the missing documents, Hillary took the email archives that any normal person would have delivered on a portable USB drive and instead printed out 50,000 (some reports say 55,000) pages of paper. Handing over boxes of paper serves no purpose other than to render the text relatively inaccessible and worthless, unless the receiver makes a colossal effort to convert the paper back to its electronic form...
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Was Bartleby the Scrivener Islamic?
by Maynard on March 6, 2015Do any of you scholars remember the brief tale of “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, by Herman Melville (he of “Moby Dick” fame)?