November 3, 2018

The mail bomber: Life imitates art?

Life imitates art?  I browsed a stack of unwatched DVDs that I had bought over the past few years.  For no particular reason, I decided to screen one called Jack Reacher.  It seemed as though I was watching last month...

October 5, 2013

Confirmation of Paid Democrat Trolls?

On Thursday, Democrat tool Chad Henderson claimed to have enrolled in ObamaCare while most others' attempts failed.  News organizations eagerly lapped up his story.  Apparently, though, the story was "too good to check," because when someon...

March 14, 2013

Kotlikoff versus Krugman: Economic Fallacies Exposed

In a recent column, Boston University Economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff challenges what he calls "Krugman's Four Dangerous Fiscal Fables."  The economics in academia must be getting worried that Mr. Krugman's Keynesian proposals might destr...

March 11, 2013

The Sequestered Life of Julia

A meticulous new analysis examines the benefits of government-administered socialism among a representative cross section of individuals.  It is an insightful departure from the usual studies of socialism that analyze only collective benefits to...

November 30, 2012

To Jail a Mockingbird

ABC News published an AP story Wednesday with the headline "Ohio Man Gets Jail for Mocking Disabled Girl."  Then it ran an expanded version of the story with the similar headline "Man Sentenced to Jail After Mocking Disabled Girl." No doubt the ...

August 5, 2012

OWS Protestors Vandalize Obama Campaign Office

Without mentioning Occupy Wall Street, the Associated Press reported that "protestors" vandalized an Obama campaign office in Oakland, California, Friday evening.  Other Big Media outlets, such as the Washington Post, ran the AP version of the s...

June 23, 2012

The Worst Story Ever Told

When it comes to politics, Hollywood must be suffering cognitive dissonance right now. Entertainers typically are left-wing ideologues, so it's natural for them to support a fellow traveler like Barack Obama.  On the other hand, they also are pr...

June 18, 2012

Fiscal Cliff Debate: Thelma Wants 95mph, Louise Demands 94

The Federal Reserve is warning that the U.S. economy is headed for a "fiscal cliff" because the Bush tax cuts will expire soon.  More specifically, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that returning to the Clinton-era tax rates would...

June 6, 2012

Who's the Boss?

During a recent grocery store run, I noticed a slender, blonde, thirty-something woman shopping with her cute four-year-old daughter.  There was a lot of playful interaction between the mother and her child.  Initially, it appeared to be a ...

April 19, 2012

New Target Audience for CBS News?

Over lunch Wednesday, I caught a few minutes of Tom Sullivan's syndicated radio program.  He mentioned that CBS's morning TV show recently featured at least two segments that were not just the usual DNC talking points.  Tuesday, CBS aired a...

March 26, 2012

If Obama has Lost Denmark...

Four years ago, Democrats and their Big Media affiliates told us we had to get rid of that embarrassing inarticulate Bush guy and elect the eloquent Mr. Obama so Europe would respect us again.  Well now it appears that even green-powered Denmark...

March 15, 2012

Obama's hidden past

IBD is questioning Mr. Obama's mysterious hidden past.  It takes the form of the very first article I wrote for AT in 2008: Spotting the Camouflaged Candidate.  In it, I posed the questions, what aren't we seeing from Mr. Obama, and wh...

February 24, 2012

If OWS has Lost San Francisco...

Last weekend, a 67 year-old Berkeley, California man calmly phoned the police, requesting protection from an aggressive trespasser that had confronted him and his wife in their garage.  The call was "queued for dispatch", but then ignored becaus...

November 7, 2011

Sexual Harassment Pointers

I'm surprised this SNL sexual harassment PSA parody has not yet resurfaced, given the current Cain news.  It's hilarious:   ...

October 25, 2011

Scamalot

Now for something completely different. What would happen if, say, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann staffed her publicity team with Python skit writers?  Her television ads certainly would be entertaining.  But would they be effectiv...

October 19, 2011

How Can You Tell Which Ones are the Rats?

That was a commenter's entertaining response to the news that rats have overrun the Occupy Oakland encampment. This comes on the heels of increasing reports of illegal drug and alcohol abuse, fighting, and sexual harassment in and around the camp of...

August 24, 2011

The Obama Bubble

President Obama, entirely lacking in business experience, could learn something about branding from the high tech sector.  At the dawn of the tech bubble, startups began to realize the importance of branding -- creating market awareness or ...

August 8, 2011

The debt downgrade and inflation prospects

US government debt is the most widely traded financial instrument in the world.  As such, there are plenty of financial analysts that understand its risks better than the analysts at Standard & Poor's.  Therefore, if US debt prices fall...

August 4, 2011

Shocking poll on global warming

Finally, a real consensus on global warming: It's a lie. Rasmussen Reports: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 69% say it's at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data ...

June 23, 2011

John Huntsman, meet Karl Rove (updated)

In today's Wall Street Journal, Bush 43 advisor Karl Rove lists four reasons why President Obama is unlikely to be reelected.  Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman seems focused on Rove's third reason, while foolishly ignoring Rove's e...

June 10, 2011

Fact-Checking Limbaugh's Seminar Caller

  On Thursday, a victim of the Reid-Pelosi recession -- an out-of-work lawyer -- phoned Rush Limbaugh's conservative radio show, suggesting a revival of Depression-era Keynesian spending.  Here is the transcript.  On the fly, Mr. Limba...

June 8, 2011

2012 is Not about Unemployment. It's about Oil.

With U3, the primary measure of US unemployment, languishing around nine percent, many in Big Media now say that the jobless rate will be a key determinant of next year's election outcome.  But that's just a Democrat red herring.  There is ...

May 24, 2011

Apocalypse Later?

 As virtually everyone now knows, Saturday was supposed to be doomsday, according to the formerly obscure geezer Harold Camping.  Search terms related to his prediction consistently led Internet rankings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday -- e...

April 27, 2011

Energy Reality Comes to Germany

Left wing activists claim that economically viable free-market sources of energy have subsidy costs that outweigh those of the utopian energy sources, wind and solar.  Among the claims is that nuclear power survives only because its industry get...

March 15, 2011

Supplemental SAT for Wisconsin Students

After watching Wisconsin public school teachers phone in sick dishonestly and scream death threats inside the state capitol building, employers and college admissions administrators must have grave concerns about the quality of education in Wisconsin...

March 10, 2011

The Politics of Social Security Reform

Democrat politicians are waging yet another media campaign to block Social Security reform.  Late last month Senator Durbin claimed, "Social Security does not add one penny to the deficit."  Two days later, a White House aide assu...

February 14, 2011

Reuters Searches High and Low to Find AGW

This winter's frigid cold must be demoralizing the leftist big media conglomerates.  Last month, Reuters reported that Britain suffered the coldest December since record keeping began a century ago, and that the US would likely suffer its coldes...

February 7, 2011

Prehistoric Pet or Favorite Meal?

One of the nicest guys I knew in college called himself "Dilligaf".  If you look up the acronym, you'll get a good idea of his carefree outlook on life.  He wasn't a motorcycling anarchist; instead, his independent disposition pro...

December 22, 2010

The Legislative Branch has Become Poison Oak

Departing Senator Voinovich quipped that we could solve America's problems by blowing up the Senate.  Perhaps the inspiration for that flippant remark came from President Obama's mentor and former Weather Underground leader, Bill Ayers.  Wh...

November 11, 2010

Hollywood: Republicans Want 'Breeder' TV Shows

The entertainment industry reviles conservatives. When a million conservatives gathered on the Washington Mall and recites the Declaration of Independence, leftists portrayed them as a mob of unruly radicals.  Didn't leftists even burn Sarah Pal...

November 8, 2010

Money for Nothin'

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November 2, 2010

The Brown Wall

President Kennedy made one of his greatest speeches in Berlin. Some debate whether his German intonation was perfect -- "Ich bin ein Berliner" -- but the speech's venue certainly was perfect. Kennedy wanted a side-by-side comparison of limi...

October 17, 2010

'Government Official of the Year'

Sometimes the words of a public servant seem indistinguishable from those of a teenage Valley Girl.  For example, in a recent interview, Michigan state representative Marie Donigan attempted to justify another $500M light rail boondoggle on the ...

October 1, 2010

Waiting for 'Unionman' (to Go Away)

In the week since the film Waiting for "Superman" hit New York and LA theaters, the public reaction seems to be coalesced in two opposing camps: school reformers praising it and unions panning it. The film showed that teachers' union bosses...

September 21, 2010

Next Time, Give the Questioners Teleprompters, Too

Monday noon, at the Newseum in Washington DC, President Obama staged a televised town hall meeting to feign concern for the victims of his destructive economic policies.  Unfortunately for the president, Velma Hart, one of his audience questione...

September 16, 2010

Ryan Avoids Getting Pricked by Rose

Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan appeared Monday on the Charlie Rose show.  Ryan and his two coauthors apparently are out promoting their new book, Young Guns.  Both the form and substance of the interview serve as a good model fo...

September 1, 2010

The European Disunion

Pardon my schadenfreude, but I was pleased to read an article in Sunday's Washington Post that questions the long-term viability of the European Union. Here's an excerpt:For many Europeans, that greater good no longer seems to matter. They wonder wha...

July 27, 2010

Let's Make a Deal -- and then Renege

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July 9, 2010

Charlie Rose Fails to Stereotype David Mamet

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May 3, 2010

Was the violence in Santa Cruz the fault of the left?

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April 22, 2010

Another 'Name that Party' AP story

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November 3, 2009

Power to the People

Using taxpayer-subsidized solar power panels as a backdrop, President Obama recently announced another $3.4B in taxpayer subsidies to help upgrade the nation's electrical power grid. The spending includes "smart meters" that theoretically c...

October 28, 2009

Hit and Run

Like the lone highway patrolman sweeping up broken glass after the TV news trucks have left the accident scene, the nation's auto-recyclers continue to clean up the mess from last summer's Cash for Clunkers program. Some recyclers still need months t...

October 3, 2009

Dog the Wags

In the 1990s movie Wag the Dog, a self-absorbed US president seemed destined to lose an imminent election to his rival.  Desperate to restore his sagging popularity, the incumbent politician cynically manipulated Big Media by faking a war.A deca...

September 27, 2009

Nimrod's Tower

President Obama has begun speaking in a foreign tongue.  At least some of the claims he made last Sunday during his unprecedented five-show media blitz certainly seemed foreign.  There is a translation of Mr. Obama's Univision appearance on...

September 7, 2009

Dog Days

Democrat lawmakers publicly deride Republicans for blocking progress on their nationalized healthcare bill.  Privately, of course, they know that's hogwash, since they need no Republican votes to pass the legislation.  The Democrats have la...

August 8, 2009

Predator

In a series of articles published from 1902-1904, Ida Tarbell attacked Standard Oil, the leading US supplier of kerosene lamp fuel.  The centerpiece of Ms. Tarbell's criticism was that the company had engaged in predatory pricing by continually ...

July 21, 2009

For Mature Audiences Only

Almost four decades ago, the 26th Amendment lowered the US voting age to 18.  At the time, most neurologists believed that the human brain was fully developed by about age 12, so allowing Americans to vote at 18 seemed like a safe move.But paren...

June 22, 2009

Simple Healthcare Math

The Obama media seem to be wringing their hands over the possibility that President Obama's attempt to nationalize America's healthcare could go down in flames, despite ABC's upcoming White House telethon.  Politico reluctantly acknowledged that...

June 20, 2009

Obama's Worst Role

Vice President Biden recently confessed that the administration "guessed wrong" on the stimulus bill.  Even President Obama reluctantly admitted that unemployment is likely to reach ten percent this year, after promising in February th...

June 16, 2009

Hell No, We Won't Go

In a nationally televised address on August 4, 1964, US President Lyndon Johnson announced that North Vietnam had launched two unprovoked attacks on American military ships.  Within three days of Johnson's TV appearance, lawmakers passed the bip...

May 16, 2009

Squirrelly Foreign Policy

"We'll call this one Barry," I said to my neighbor, as we smiled and continued to watch the trapped ground squirrel.  By now, he was oscillating frantically from one end of the cage to the other.  No, it wasn't redneck criticism o...

March 9, 2009

Back then we thought it was cool

Recent recantations by avid Obama supporters, including financial celebrity Jim Cramer, are reminiscent of the late actor, Yul Brynner.  Brynner was an avid smoker who, on learning that he was dying of lung cancer, recorded the following message...

February 9, 2009

Democrat Wage Controls Mean Mediocre Management

Over the ages of human existence, wage and price controls have ended the reign of Egyptian pharaohs, brought down the Babylonian Empire, and further weakened the Nixon administration.  But that didn't stop Senator Claire McCaskill from proposing...

February 1, 2009

Top Ten Changes if Congress Bails Out the Super Bowl

According to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, this year's Super Bowl game generated about $150M for the Tampa Bay area, down $50M from Phoenix's 2008 revenue.  Next year's game will be played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida....

January 14, 2009

The UAW & Me

The United Auto Workers will not have to sell its money-losing luxury golf course right away, thanks to the money taxpayers are sending to GM and Chrysler. But my own experience with the union suggests to me why so many jobs have been destroyed in co...

December 3, 2008

Products that Nobody Wants

Lawmakers plan to stage more inquisitions again this week, scolding Detroit auto executives for everything from product design to travel expenses.  Not that the Democrat-controlled Congress intends to let them go bankrupt.  That would hurt ...

October 31, 2008

Spotting the Camouflaged Candidate

Sometimes it's possible to spot a camouflaged animal not by watching for motion but by doing just the opposite: watching for motionlessness.  Skilled birdwatchers might notice for instance, that all but two reed stems seem to be blowing in the b...