Are Subsidies the Cure-All, or the Beginning of the End?

Is anyone else bothered by the seemingly constant emphasis on subsidies as the cure-all for unaffordable insurance plans individuals are being required to buy? While far fewer than they're suggesting will actually qualify for the subsidies, it seems rather unsettling, to say the least, that the government is trying to push so many into a form of dependency.  I find it galling. The government is not just making people aware of this option, we're pretty much forcing them to enter the cycle of dependency. You MUST have health care. If you cannot afford it, come to us. we will help you. Yes. The nine most terrifying words in the English language: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."   

This is not an inconsequential moment in our nation's history. Not only are we watching the government take over one-sixth of the economy, but we about to witness as a portion of free Americans--many of them young, filled with ambition, hopes and dreams--submit themselves and their future to the will of the state. 

New Low for Democrat Strategery: Sex Antics in VA

The Virginia Democratic Party and Terry McAuliffe have reached a new low in campaign strategery--their campaign theme this week: oral sex. Yes, that's right. In case all their inane rantings and ravings about the "extreme" and "dangerous" Ken Cuccinelli have not sufficiently distracted from any genuine discussion of the issues, they hope this will do the trick.

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Freedom Will Never Reign for Young Blacks in Face of Divisive Tactics, Political Calculation

The effort to promote suspicion and contempt of anyone who disagrees philosophically with a president who happen to be black has nothing to do with bettering the condition of black Americans. It's insidious, and promoting division and discord is the exact opposite of Dr. King's objective.

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Culture of Violence Will Be Ignored After OK Killing

Those who will or already have reduced the brutal slaying of Christopher Lane to an issue of gun control don't want to deal with the complicated, tough issues involved: a culture of violence promoted by gangs that are recruiting and preying on young people and destroying lives, rap lyrics glorifying killing, rampant drug use among kids, and schools that are hotbeds of violence.

The murder of Chris Lane was not just senseless violence, or some random tragedy.  He was targeted. We don't yet know why. But he was intentionally slaughtered. The killing is indicative of a cultural crisis across our society. This happened in DUNCAN, OKLAHOMA. Population: about 24,000. According to news reports, the Crips have been in this part of small town America for a couple years, and kids are cowering in their homes because they're being recruited and threatened with death if they don't join. 

One of the accused was 15.  He's in school--think teachers didn't realize he was troubled, in a gang, violent, possibly using and/or selling drugs?  

Our teachers see what's happening. They know drugs are rampant, they know rap and a culture of violence are stealing our children. They put their lives on the line every day to go into these places and try to offer a better future to our young. But they are given no back up, no useful tools to deal on a daily basis with the crisis (think the current "mediation in lieu of consequences" fad would have impacted Lane's killers?) because we as a society would rather shout about racism and guns than deal with the problems destroying a significant portion of that generation.

It's much easier to offer up gun control as a panacea that will fix the problem of violence in our society--particularly for the left. That way, they don't offend Hollywood, the music industry, teachers unions, Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. They just offend the NRA. But we all know gun control won't touch The actual problems. With hundreds of millions of guns in circulation in the US, restrictions only keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. 

Look, this is hard. It will take a painful, courageous self-examination of where we are as a nation--the fact that we are sacrificing a generation because we're too scared to talk about tough issues of popular culture, poverty, schools filled with violence, drugs and no discipline, and yes, race. Because we've been conditioned by academia and the media to see it as politically incorrect and insensitive--ok, as downright racist--to dare to talk about violence by blacks or other minorities and the destructive forces profiting off that violence.

Is our president going to lead us courageously into that discussion? One can only hope. He's the one to do it. But given his track record of not addressing these issues with seriousness, but instead stirring the racial pot when it suits him (Columbia police "acted stupidly" in the Henry Louis Gates incident; and If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon."), don't hold your breath.

Massive Student Debt and No Jobs: Obama's "Fun" College Tour

Will Obama and Biden's "fun" college romp address dramatic tuition spikes, bleak job prospects, and the deteriorating quality of a college degree? Nah. Hey, it's all in good fun.

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Sneaky Delay in Obamacare Can Backfire

Mid-term elections are in 2014, and Americans would be royally ticked going to the polls as Obamacare sinks its teeth into businesses, and in turn, employees and consumers. So Obama is delaying implementation until those elections are safely over. Impact avoided. And yet. . . could the delay instead be a rallying cry for those opposed to Obamacare and its destructive consequences? Could what was intended by the Obama Administration for political gain turn into their political disaster?  Of course. But there's a big "if."

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"Unlikeable Obama:" Fox News Poll Shows Major Shift

 When only a third of the American people trust the government and half think the government is listening to their phone calls and reading their emails, there is a problem.

Fox News released a poll today with plenty of alarming information for the Obama Administration: 71% believe the federal government is too powerful, 66% think the IRS should be abolished or massively reorganized, only 43% approve of the job the President is doing, and my personal favorite: 82% believe the Founding Fathers would disapprove of the current goings-on in Washington, DC.  Ya think?

But a particularly striking revelation of the poll is that now a majority of Americans disapprove of Obama himself.  That's the "likeability" factor and it's important. Particularly to this President. Currently, only 47% of the American people view the President favorably.  Those who view him unfavorably: 51%.  A majority. That's a first. 

That "likeablity" enabled Obama to rest on the goodwill of the American people when he was pushing measures they either weren't too sure of, or just downright didn't like. Now, in the wake of the numerous scandals and as the effects of Obamacare are being felt, that goodwill is evaporating. The President is going to have a tougher time pushing aspects of his agenda the public find questionable or objectionable.  That's one reason we'll see more of the executive fiats, such as the regulation into oblivion of the coal industry.

Not only do the American people distrust government (a very big deal given that Obama's entire agenda banks on the belief that government is good), but they are beginning not to trust him--or what he says. They used to trust him, as they did when he said Obamacare would lower health care premiums, that the deficit was under control, that middle class taxes would go down, or that a video was responsible for the murder of our Libyan ambassador.  But then they realized he just wasn't being straight with them. In fact, it appears he was taking them for fools. Now, when Obama says things such as, "Ignore voices warning of government tyranny," that actually alarms more people than it placates.  Particularly when days later it is revealed that the IRS targeted the President's ideological opponents. 

It has been Obama's practice to say one thing even though the facts say quite the opposite. To get away with it, he has relied on the goodwill of the American people, and on his own previously powerful "likeability." Up until now, most folks have just gone along with whatever he says--because they trust him and like him. But it appears that the scales are falling away.  We can only be mocked so many times before even we profoundly busy and distracted (and perhaps gullible) Americans take heed. The continued scandals, the refusal of the President to handle them forthrightly, and the great awakening of a weary nation are going to take a heavy toll.  Declining "likeability" is an important indicator of just how heavy it will be. 

Truth Averse Obama Deceives Americans on His Budget Numbers

It should surprise no one that the Obama Administration, encumbered by a genuine "Truth Aversion," would fabricate budget numbers to deceive the American public. Some will be surprised, however, by the audacity and extent of the deception--how dramatically the numbers were skewed by the President, himself (though no doubt fault lies with some low-level speech writer). Read More

Media Giving Bombers a "Lone Wolf" Pass?

The media--and the Obama Administration--know that if the bombings are tied to radical Islam (and the only way you can say they weren't is to ignore the mounting evidence), that will open up a broader discussion in this country about the increasing threat here from those who have been radicalized--how it's happening, who is doing it, and who is financing it. That's actually a discussion that needs to happen, yet the media and the administration seem determined not to let it.

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Using Boston to Score Points: Demonizing over Sequester

Less than 24 hours later, however, the ripping apart of America, the demonizing began again. Political gamesmanship of the now-perfected ilk "vilify one's opponent" centered around, of all things, sequester. It is all eerily familiar to President Obama using the precious victims of Sandy Hook, and their families, to push his gun control efforts--to say if one opposes his gun plans, he must not care about those children. Disgusting. So it what we see happening now. Read More

Raising Our Sons to be Men of Honor

I want my boys to strive for more. To be men of honor in a world that laughs at anyone who won't download pirated songs and movies. To respect women ​despite a culture that finds it acceptable to call them "bitches."  I want my sons to be bold, ambitious, and prosperous--in body, mind and spirit--in a country that shames the successful.

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