NRO's The Corner: Obamacare ‘like a house on fire’ with more flammable parts yet to come

What would the Left’s Right's reaction be if police officers were being hauled in on charges of sexually abusing children as frequently as public-school teachers priests are?

something along the lines of "allowing homosexualists to become cops opened the gates to perversion" no doubt

I don't even understand Williamson's question, no matter how many times I've read it.

it actually makes LESS sense the more you "think" about it

this is genuinely dazzling work

false equivalence is the fallacy of our time

the answer is, i'd be happy? i think i'd be happy about that.

We need to close the year with a post from NRO's house intellectual Kevin Williamson:

To add just one thing to Quin’s excellent observations: Some of my lefty/opportunistic correspondents have asked: “How could something like this possibly happen? How could somebody accept an invitation to speak to a group without being sure what that group is about?”

Answer: Easily, in my experience.

Like politicians, opinion writers receive a great many invitations to deliver talks about the things we care about. I imagine that Steve Scalise gets a great many more than I do. But I myself have, within recent memory, accepted an invitation to give a talk (I believe it was to be about the national debt) to a perfectly respectable-sounding organization (Something Somethings for Liberty, I think) that turned out to be something else: Birchers, in this case, not David Duke nut clusters. I withdrew when I discovered what they were about. But it is not difficult to imagine that if I had a politician’s packed speaking schedule rather than my own comparatively leisurely one, I might have shown up and given my entitlement-reform talk to a bunch of people who think that Dwight Eisenhower was a Soviet agent.

On the other hand, it is more difficult to explain away all those photos of noted Democratic and progressive leaders in the company of Louis Farrakhan. Is there anybody who doesn’t know what he is about?

https://twitter.com/NRO/status/560890219897974784

boom

jews aren't white, the UN told me so

I need to poll these:

Following up on Joel’s post about Governor Jindal’s comments on assimilation yesterday, here’s my top-ten list of what we should expect from those who want to become Americans (and those who are already Americans, for that matter). The list was first published in a National Review Online column nearly 15 years ago, and it was fleshed out in this congressional testimony seven years later:

1. Don’t disparage anyone else’s race or ethnicity.

2. Respect women.

3. Learn to speak English.

4. Be polite.

5. Don’t break the law.

6. Don’t have children out of wedlock.

7. Don’t demand anything because of your race or ethnicity.

8. Don’t view working and studying hard as “acting white.”

9. Don’t hold historical grudges.

10. Be proud of being an American.

My list and Governor Jindal’s appear, unsurprisingly, to be similar — especially, per Joel’s post, with regard to my last item.

1. Be proud of anyone's race or ethnicity.
2. Don't disparage anyone's historical grudges.
3. Respect children out of wedlock.
4. Don't demand to speak English because "acting white."
5. Don't view working and studying hard as "being an American."

If it weren't for the fact that every item on that list can be viewed as racist code, one might view it as pretty innocuous.

"Don't hold historical grudges" is my fave on there; totally a reasonable request.

"Sure your grandparent's generation violently suppressed my grandparent's generation but I see no point in thinking about that now; doesn't inform our modern world in any way."

"No backsies"

That Was Then, This is NRO

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2015/02/rich_lowry_hates_tables_and_gr054151.php#

Lowry's editorial in Politico re the Vox interviews with Obama is petty and snarls and that's not even getting into his comparison of Ezra Klein to Leni Riefenstahl. Lowry's invocation of "traditional marriage" and his venom re spending, taxes and regulation is comically cliche at this point.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/vox-obama-rich-lowry-115134.html#ixzz3RjdjDVQp

Holding historical grudges is the national pastime in the American South.

regional pastime, please

http://c10.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/styles/original_image_with_cropping/public/homepage-featured-image/miley2.jpg?itok=a98-H1_e

by Fred Schwarz February 19, 2015 6:29 PM

I think Obama does love America; he just has a funny way of showing it. Some people see love as a partnership: “I love you, so I want to support you and reassure you and help you achieve all your goals.” But there’s also the type of person who sees love as a project: “You’re a total mess, but because I love you, I’m going to make you lose 20 pounds and get rid of those awful clothes and find you some new friends to hang out with and tell you what to read and improve your taste in wine and get that squeaky sound in your car fixed and maybe get you off your butt a little bit on weekends, darling.” Obama’s love for America is of the second type.

whadda maroon

by JAY NORDLINGER

February 22, 2015 10:21 PM

1) The host can’t stop stoking racial grievance. Great — exactly what America needs. 2) The idea that women don’t have equal rights in this country is a lie — a lie that, year after year, does harm. 3) Harry Belafonte is the opposite of a humanitarian: the loyal supporter of one of the most brutal dictatorships of our times, the Castro regime in Cuba, which has imprisoned, tortured, and killed thousands of innocent people.

sounds more like a list of demands

most otm corner comment ever, amid the homophobic campfire circle on a thread about the Atlanta fire chief

I have a lot of gay friends, every single one of them says they knew by 9 years old that they were gay. My guess is that most of them (gay people). Would say something similar. Are you going to tell me that's a choice? Or do you think maybe it's genetic? I don't think this guy should have been fired but can we stop with this fiction that people are really choosing this. Are there some people who might experiment or be unsure? Of course but for the vast majority this is who they are and apologies to lady gags but they were born that way. I wish you guys would stop acting like gay people are doing something wrong. It almost seems like you think they are gay to piss you off

there's also a sliver of a good idea in J-Goldberg's post about blacks and Hollywood but it's buried in balderdash.

by Deroy Murdock March 3, 2015 10:37 AM

As Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress today, controversy continues to rage over whether House speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) should have invited him without consulting Obama. As it happens, Boehner did alert the White House an hour before the speech was announced. Whether or not that counts as consultation is an open question. It’s worth noting though that Congress is a separate and co-equal branch of government. If Congress wants to hear someone speak, it does not have to get permission first from Obama or anyone else in the White House. At some point in the near future, Congress, or at least the Senate, may have to approve or reject whatever deal Obama makes with Iran. America’s duly-elected legislators have every right and power to summon whomever they wish to give them information and perspectives to help them make decisions on any such agreement, as well as broader American policy on the Middle East. Bibi accepted an invitation extended to him by Boehner. Bibi was under no obligation to check and see if Obama “approved” of Congress’ invitation. Bibi is the most blameless character in this story.

If the prime minister were trying to weedle his way onto the House podium without permission, I would be all for keeping him from speaking, or at least for legislators boycotting his appearance. But as it happens, Bibi was asked to address both houses of Congress. And both houses of Congress he should and shall address. Members of both parties and both chambers should listen to his outlook and then meditate on and debate the merits of his message. This is how democracies operate. If Obama can’t handle that, he can ask to address a joint session of Congress and offer his own views on how to handle Iran and the rest of the blazing inferno that we affectionately call the Middle East. If the president does not appreciate the fact that Boehner did not consult him before making a decision, perhaps he now knows how Congress feels about his relentless rule by decree. Obama did not consult Congress before issuing his executive orders on amnesty, nor on the numerous unilateral changes he made to Obamacare. As he himself is fond of saying, he’s “gone around Congress” numerous times, as a matter of course. Indeed, Obama plans to structure his intended atomic agreement with Iran in such a way that Congress cannot approve or reject it, either.

As he has so many times before, the president hopes to issue an Iran deal like a pronouncement from the throne. So, before the administration continues its tantrum over not being consulted, it should consider consulting Congress when it wants new laws written or old laws revised. This is how we do things in America. Obama should leave the decrees to his friends in Tehran.

It’s worth noting though that Congress is a separate and co-equal branch of government.

i think this is right, it's been kinda weird seeing the big critics of executive power (to the detriment of the other branches of government) defending its exclusivity in this case. (nb i understand foreign affairs, or at the very least inviting foreign leaders maybe be different but still it's a weird argument to lean on that this is insulting to the executive.)

Limbaugh Says Obama Treats Netanyahu 'Like A White Policeman From Ferguson' 42 minutes ago

still it's a weird argument to lean on that this is insulting to the executive

how is this weird. it's insulting to the executive.

Bc the executive should have less power not possibly made up new powers

i mean, that's the whole point of it, to be insulting to the executive

The fact that the State Dept. was not consulted or even notified until the invitation had been accepted can't be construed as anything but an insult to the executive. The Congress may be a separate and equal branch, but it is all supposed to be the same government and its parts should be expected to work together.

it's a bit of a tempest in a teapot the whole thing

it's a bit of a tempest in a teapot the whole thing

Agreed. By the logic of "insult" here, one could argue Obama has a few times "insulted" Congress as well.

One of the more boring, to me, discussions in politics is whether and how members of one party have "insulted" a POTUS of the other party. IMO that just tends to be a rhetorical distraction from the issues.

Edit to: One of the more boring, to me, discussions in politics is whether and how members (or POTUS) of one party have "insulted" members (or POTUS) of the other party.

I hadn't read one of these classic posts in a while.

has there been a horror movie yet about war memorial statues coming to live and hoisting children on their shoulders?

National Treasure?

I don't even get what he's saying. He comes down on the finger-wagging side, so that means he doesn't think kids should climb on the statue? But the dead embronzed nurse would actually WANT the kid to climb on her so...?

Also, has this guy really never frolicked in a graveyard? I feel like people constantly frolic in graveyards.

Graveyards were meant to be frolicked in; people useta have picnics in them alla time

uh

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/416078/sick-and-twisted-culture-jay-nordlinger

And I believe I got a whiff — just a tiny whiff — of Nuremberg in Avery Fisher Hall tonight.

i have that cologne

it has nothing of the aroma or piquancy of my good friend Rush.

ie flopsweat and cheesypuffs

Obviously, John Adams knows nothing about Rush Limbaugh. It’s a good bet he has never listened to Rush’s show or read an article by him. The same must be true of the audience members who applauded.

They never him.

And this dude is one of their smarter writers.

One of the reasons Netflix’s House of Cards is so popular is that Francis Underwood, the fictional president played by Kevin Spacey, makes for a juicy villain, one utterly drenched in his own cynicism. But most people know the show is a fantasy. “No one can possibly be that amoral and rise to the highest levels of government,” one of my Michigan relatives told me. “Thank goodness.” But Harry Reid, who announced his retirement from politics last Friday, sure comes close.

Obviously, John Adams knows nothing about Rush Limbaugh.

well, obviously.

imagine his distress.