Doctors Die Differently

Doctor Ken Murray has some thoughts at the Wall Street Journal.

It's about quality, not quantity.

Dave Barry on Colonoscopy

It's a few years old, but still relevant.

Yep, Yep, Yep: Tim "Tax Cheat" Geitner and the Privilege of Being American

Lawrence B. Lindsey gets it right.

It isn't a privilege, and Geitner is a public servant who serves at the will of the People, not a ruler who grants privileges.

Politicians of both parties and at every level despise that.

We should resurrect the traditional American cure of tar and feathers.

Emily Gets Her Gun

Washington Times reporter Emily Miller has a long-running series on the trials and tribulations of legally getting a handgun in Washington, DC.

It seems to me that the phrase "shall not be restricted" must have an alternative universe meaning in the capitol of the Land of the Free. DC is controlled by seriously anti-American people.

Bad Luck

Every time President Obama or one of his apologists whines that the economy is in the doldrums because of "bad luck", I am reminded of this quote from science fiction writer Robert Heinlein:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

Plenty of that going around.

As Goes California, So Goes Hawaii

Tim Cavanaugh on the GOP, particularly the California GOP:

Aging, compromised, morally bankrupt RINOs are no longer just a subgroup within the party. They are the default setting of the party. This is especially true in California, where Republicans happily vilify Barack Obama and Jerry Brown but somehow can’t get around to opposing high-speed rail, fighting the cap and trade system that came in this year, or in any other serious way distinguishing themselves from the Democrats. Worse still, the GOP actually opposed Brown’s efforts to abolish redevelopment agencies.

The Republicans’ inability to engage the Tea Party or the broader libertarian insurrection has been a problem everywhere, but in California, where the Tea Party never happened, the party of Reagan and Prop 13 has almost no libertarian mojo. Given the California GOP’s crisis of demographics and relevance, that’s a real problem.

One prominent Hawaii GOPper was quoted some time back saying that rich supporters give money, the religious supporters give their labor, and the libertarians sit around and complain. Seems about right: libertarians are not interested in being political: we want to be left alone. We don't want our lives ever more politicized: we want to be left alone. We don't want the politicians making decisions for us: we want to be left alone. The Republicans despise that idea: They don't want to leave us alone.

The party is marginal and becoming more so, but the leadership is deathly afraid of the one proven source of Republican energy and enthusiasm – because that source is considered too marginal. If the California Republicans continue distancing themselves from the libertarian movement, they will continue to suffer, and so will everybody else who has to live in a state where one party has absolute power and the other refuses to compete.

It does sound like Hawaii. Just look at the school system: widely acknowledged by all that it is a mess, controlled lock, stock, and barrel by the Democratic Party for half a century, but it occurs to no one, including the Republicans, to hold the Democrats responsible.

Maybe that is actually a great school system: It teaches one and all that the Democrats must always have all the power, without any accountability.

Mark Steyn on the Perversion of Rights

This is too depressing to quote, but it is worth a quick read.