…in part…because of laughable administrative decisions like this one: Writing “I love Alex” on a school gymnasium wall brought a 12-year-old the same punishment as if she had made terrorist threats. The Katy Independent School District rated the message, written with a baby blue marker by sixth-grader Shelby Sendelbach, as a Level 4 infraction —…
Op-Ed Blog
Spring Victim’s Suicide
David Ritcheson, the young man from my former home town who was brutalized by a pair of Nazi wannabes last year, has killed himself. According to Fox News: Ritcheson, a small and quiet youth, once lamented being known as “that kid” who survived the party attack. He rarely discussed his feelings and declined to get…
The Ethanol Problem
David Broussard recently penned a piece describing the problem with the push to use ethanol as a “renewable energy source”, one that is supposed to ease our dependence on foreign – read “Islamic” – oil. As David says, the dream of replacing gasoline with corn alcohol simply is not going to happen: The US uses about 130…
Freedoms
A while back George Will wrote a column titled “Valuing Speech” that is apropos for Independence Day, I think, and another discussion about the relative correctness of liberalism, conservatism, and constructionism. Will says: Marriage is the foundation of the natural family and sustains family values. That sentence is inflammatory, perhaps even a hate crime. At…
Science == Prosperity
The National Academies of Science recently produced a report titled “Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics: The Science of the World Around Us” and in it says that the U.S. has failed to increase funding for CMMP research at the same rate as our competitors and that we have all but lost our position of leadership in…
Elder Care
Reading Ken Connor’s article “Embryo to Elderly—A Consistent Life Ethic” I was reminded of my great-grandmother. She lived with my grandparents during my early childhood and I recall clearly the summer days when school was out. I’d often get to spend a week or two there and I’d spend most of my time inside playing…
Republicans Fumbling Immigration
Republicans have been whining and dragging their feet on this topic for years. I fail to understand why, unless their support for American businesses extends to providing a free flow of illegal laborers. By failing to enact immigration reform during the first 6 years of the Bush administration, Pubs made a serious mistake. Now, faced…
Why Won’t Congress Do What I Want?
That’s the question that’s burning up, that’s literally on fire at many of the so-called “progressive” – liberal – chatterbox blogs these days. It’s an interesting question, actually, because Democrats were recently elected to a majority in Congress based primarily on the fact that they weren’t Republicans. So why won’t the Dems do the things they said…
Earmarks, the Other Pork Flavor
Speaking of politicians who change their tune as soon as they reach office, what ever happened to Democrats’ promises to run an open and transparent government? CNN says not much: Despite the new Democratic congressional leadership’s promise of “openness and transparency” in the budget process, a CNN survey of the House found it nearly impossible…
Conservatism
Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says that Republicans desperately want to become fiscal conservatives again: In the good old days when Republicans ruled Congress, their instructions for President Bush were: no vetoes, especially of spending bills. Republican leaders — House Speaker Denny Hastert, for one — made it clear a Bush veto would cause…