Blogs for 2007 - Road to the Middle Class

A lot of conservatives have been blaming the feckless Republican Congress for the loss last November, writes Charles R. Kesler. For them the election defeat was “a rejection of a party that had strayed too far from the conservative path.”

Not so fast, says Kesler. If only it were true that all Republicans needed to do was to swing in line with conservative ideas and reap a gratifying majority! On the contrary, unfold

Here Comes The Eco-industrial Complex

by Christopher Chantrill

YOU HAVE to feel for the climate change enthusiasts. If George W. Bush can spend $100 billion a year on his war, why shouldn’t they have some cash to subsidize vital carbon reduction programs, like building wind farms and carbon-neutral switchgrass processing plants?

And if Bush can do it with taxpayers’ money, why not the venture socialists?

Yes, Virginia. There are venture capitalists and there are venture socialists. And you know the difference.

Right now the venture socialists—ok, environmentalists—are unfold

French Candidate Holds Rally in London

by Christopher Chantrill

IMAGINE, if you can, the next Republican candidate for the presidency campaigning in Toronto.

That is about what French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy just did. He held a campaign rally in Billingsgate fish market in London, England.

Why on earth would he do that? Well, how about 300,000 French people living and working in London?

Anyway, the French expats loved it. According to Anthony Browne

Police struggled to control the unfold

The Party of Resentment

by Christopher Chantrill

AS YOU MAY know by now, Hillary Clinton “really resents” that Bush’s War may not be over by January 2009, the month of her inaugural.

Columnist and neo-con son John Podhoretz duly took note.

It’s rare to hear questions about difficult policies discussed in terms of personal resentments, but perhaps this is one of the areas where Hillary Clinton will blaze a new presidential trail.

He unfold

The Lessons of the Michigan Civil Rights Victory

by Christopher Chantrill

IN MICHIGAN last November the voters spoke loudly on the question of race, affirmative action, and “diversity.” They voted against it. Ward Connerly gives us a chance to review the state of the fight against race preferences. There are ten points that need to be made, he argues:

Just because the Supreme Court votes against “diversity” it doesn’t mean that the fight is over.
Self government means unfold

PHP Arrays and XML-RPC

by Christopher Chantrill

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED by the XML-RPC technology? Having trouble figuring how to get a hold of items after they have been transmitted over XML? So was I. Now I think I have figured it out.

Blog Ping

Let’s look first of all at a weblog update call using XMLRPC implementation by Keith Devens. You are going to send a ping to weblogs.com.

First, you start with an array:

$params = array(XMLRPC_prepare("my unfold

The Rule of the Idiots

by Christopher Chantrill

SUPPOSE that you applied for health insurance and the insurance company said that they wouldn’t insure you because of some pre-existing condition. What should you do?

Call your congressman to write a law forcing all insurance companies to insure you.
Find an insurance company that will insure you anyway.

As Arnold Kling writes, the two choices represent the market approach to life or unfold

A "Civ-Con" Is Born

by Christopher Chantrill

IT MUST be a measure of the breadth and depth of the American conservative movement that it has such a complex taxonomy. There are, as John Fonte writes:

economic conservatives, social conservatives, national-defense conservatives, neoconservatives, paleoconservatives, and even “crunchy” conservatives or “crunchy cons.”

But is that really enough? There is no better time to think through and revise the unfold

Why Tolerance Is Not Enough For Gays

by Christopher Chantrill

ORDINARY PEOPLE may wonder at the energy with which gays advocate for “gay marriage” and “gay adoption.” Surely, isn’t tolerance enough?

Philosopher Roger Scruton provides the answer. The problem with tolerance is that is still regards the heterosexual as normal and the homosexual as abnormal.

[T]his attitude does not satisfy the activists. For to unfold

Middle-Class Secret of Success

by Christopher Chantrill

DEMOCRATS like Senator Jim Webb claim that the middle class is in crisis. In his “barn-burner” of a speech responding to President Bush he claimed:

Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base unfold

Let's Get Serious About Energy

by Christopher Chantrill

WHY DO WE keep on this chimera of “energy independence?” Ever since the oil shock of the 1970s the government has been talking about it. And as Charles Krauthammer notes,

By my count, 24 of the 34 State of the Union addresses since the oil embargo of 1973 have proposed solutions to our energy problem.

Now we have another call for energy independence—to switch to ethanol, of all things, ethanol unfold

No Sex Please, We're Married

by Christopher Chantrill

EVERYBODY knows that back in the bad old days husbands and wives never saw each other. And as for sex. Well, no wonder nobody talked about it.

So now everything is better, right? Now everybody can talk it out when they have a problem and then get back to bonking.

Not quite, as Lesley Thomas reports. Even though couples today are intimate, best friends, and all that, they are actually having less sex unfold

Ben Stein: They are Lynching My President

by Christopher Chantrill

THERE was American Spectator columnist Ben Stein sitting back watching the president’s State of the Union speech. “I thought it was darned good. Realistic, gracious, modest, sensible.” But as soon as it was over the media started in on it.

Then, whaam, as soon as the speech was over, ABC was bashing him, telling us how pathetic he was, how irrelevant he was, how weak he was, how unrealistic he unfold

It's For The Children

by Christopher Chantrill

CONSERVATIVES OFTEN complain about the way that liberals always say that every program, every expansion of government they propose is “for the children” writes Jonah Goldberg. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is playing the children card this week as she demands the reauthorization of "SCHIP", the State Child Health unfold

President Bush's Health Care Proposals

by Christopher Chantrill

IN his State of the Union address, President Bush made several health care proposals.

First, I propose a standard tax deduction for health insurance that will be like the standard tax deduction for dependents. Families with health insurance will pay no income on [sic] payroll tax — or payroll taxes on $15,000 of their income. Single Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on $7,500 of unfold

President Bush Sets Up Republican Retreat

by Christopher Chantrill

THE KEY QUESTION, after the Republican defeat last November, is how President Bush plans the necessary Republican retreat. You almost always have to retreat after a defeat in battle, and the quality of that retreat is what sets up the opportunity for a new offensive.

Said the president, as reported by Joseph Curl:

For all of us in this room, there is no higher responsibility than to protect the people of this country from danger. unfold

Milton Friedman, E-mailer

by Christopher Chantrill

BACK in July 2006 the Wall Street Journal was emailing with Milton Friedman about China and exchange rates and economic policy. Was he worried, for instance, about the low US savings rate? No, he wasn’t.

The right saving rate is whatever satisfies the tastes and preferences of the public in a free and unbiased capital market. Market can adjust to any rate. This is a very complicated question. Present estimates probably unfold

Behind the NYT Happy Single Women Story

by Christopher Chantrill

GOOD show for the New York Times. Their story on single women reported by Sam Roberts—that 51 percent of women are not living with husbands—required them to do a bit of massaging. They lumped single teenaged girls and women whose husbands are on assigment into the “single” column, reports unfold

What Should We Do About Education?

by Christopher Chantrill

AFTER A century of government education we still have large swathes of the population that just don’t get education. Writes Niall Ferguson

In Britain today, fully 40 per cent of adults who left school at the earliest opportunity are now unemployed.

Then he goes on to talk about an “an uneducated and unemployable underclass” that is our biggest problem.

Here we are spending about five unfold

Collapsing Venezuela. Who Cares?

by Christopher Chantrill

NOW that the price of oil is going down we shall start to see the consequence in the thug dictator nations, natural resource states like Venezuela. Richard W. Rahn reminds us the dimensions of the corruption in that unhappy country and of the collapse to come.

It has been widely reported that Mr. Chavez has been increasingly taking control of the oil, telecommunications and energy sectors, as well unfold

"Have Your Baghdad Civil War Without Us"

by Christopher Chantrill

WHAT is the difference between a serious commentator and an unserious one?

Answer: Occasionally, the serious commentator can be detected in an original thought. That is why Charles Krauthammer is a serious commentator.

He asks: What’s the point of the “surge?” The problem is that is does nothing to make the Maliki government get serious about the Shiite militias. Right now it is protecting unfold

A Small Step towards Education Reform

by Christopher Chantrill

THE NEW York City Department of Education is taking a small step towards reform. As reported by Ryan Sager, in the future the standard process will:

Require principals from now on to actually recommend teachers for tenure.

Up to now, 99 percent of probationary teachers got tenure after three years. Now the system will take a tiny step to change this.

unfold

Why Isn't The President Fighting For His Plan?

by Christopher Chantrill

RADIO TALK-SHOW host Hugh Hewitt is fit to be tied about the lackluster media offensive for the president’s plan for a “surge” in Iraq. The president sent Tony Snow out to talk to the bloggers and the talk-radio shows, he gave his speech, appeared on 60 Minutes, and sent folks out on the weekend talk shows, he notes.

And that was it.

Media unfold

In Defeat: Defiance or Renewal?

by Christopher Chantrill

WINSTON CHURCHILL famously advised: “In victory: magnanimity; in defeat: defiance.” But in recent history defeat for liberals has usually led to denial, and for the American conservative movement, defeat has often led to renewal, as Rich Lowry writes:

The recent history of conservatism is that in disaster there is renewal. Barry Goldwater’s shellacking in 1964 paved the way for the conservative transformation of unfold

French Lefties Dodging Wealth Tax

by Christopher Chantrill

YOU FEEL a bit guilty about it. After all, we conservatives shouldn’t be indulging in German vices like Schadenfreude. But when the Great Left Hope of France, Segolene Royal, gets in trouble for dodging the French wealth tax by the very capitalist device of incorporating herself and her husband into a real-estate company, well, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer couple.

Here’s what Sego did, as reported by unfold

Democrats Out Of Ideas

by Christopher Chantrill

WE’VE ALREADY looked at the agenda-less Democrats here at Road to the Middle Class, and tut-tutted here and here about the venality of just wanting to control Congress for the power.

We wondered if this could really be so. Could Democrats really be that cynical? Yes they could, reports unfold

Michelle Malkin in Baghdad

by Christopher Chantrill

A few weeks ago conservative columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin took out after the AP for relying on unreliable sources in Iraq. The upshot was a visit to Baghdad. Just back from the front, Malkin writes:

I came to Iraq a darkening pessimist about the war, due in large part to my doubts about the compatability of Islam and Western-style democracy, but also as a result of the steady, sensational diet of “grim milestone” and “daily IED unfold

Too Hot or Too Cold?

by Christopher Chantrill

HOW should Congressional Republicans behave? As pit-bulls or as lap-dogs? That’s the hot political story today taken up by Rush Limbaugh.

According to Christina Bellantoni:

Several Republicans confirmed privately that more than two-thirds of House Republicans are favoring a slow approach, while a minority of members think the attacks on Democrats should come rapid-fire.

Rush Limbaugh isn’t happy. He was unfold

A Bollywood Marriage -- Made in Heaven?

by Christopher Chantrill

LET’S ANALYZE the announcement that has all India dancing in the streets, the engagement between Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai (Bride and Prejudice) and Abhishek Bachchan. I mean, let’s do some cultural analysis.

First of all, the engagement was announced by the father of the groom, himself a famous Bollywood star. According to Jeremy Page in Delhi the engagement was announced this way.

unfold

When Underclass Pathology Reaches into the Middle Class

by Christopher Chantrill

THE thing about underclass pathologies is: Who Cares? It’s all so far away. The closest that ordinary middle-class people get to it is watching the local news on TV or reading about “bad choices” in a magazine article about troubled teens. But what about when it comes a little too close to home?

In Britain this fall the nation was transfixed by a series of five murders of young drug-addled prostitutes in the middle-class town of Ipswich. Worse was the news that some of the girls had come from unfold

Has Bush Blundered into Victory?

by Christopher Chantrill

DID THE Bush administration blunder into the best policy in the Middle East? That is the suggestion of Edward N. Luttwak.

The Bush administration launched the Iraq invasion as the centerpiece of an ambitious effort to bring democracy to the Middle East. Well, that dream is over. But it seems that it has inadvertently brought about a strategic win, with “divide and rule, the classic formula for imperial power on the cheap.”

unfold

People are Getting Better and Better.

by Christopher Chantrill

BACK IN the 1500s there was nothing people liked more than a good old cat-burning. Now, says psychologist Steven Pinker, “such sadism would be unthinkable today in most of the world.”

Here’s what Stephen M. Kosslyn another Harvard psychologist thinks, as reported by Arnold Kling.

Just as a body builder can do curls to build up biceps and dips on parallel bars to build up triceps, we can design computer-game-like tasks that exercise specific parts unfold

The Politics of Stem Cell Research

by Christopher Chantrill

YESTERDAY the House of Representatives passed a bill that expands the federal presence in embryonic stem-cell research.

As you can see in the report by Christina Bellantoni the Democrats believe that they have a winner on this one.

“We have a moral obligation to provide our scientific community with the tools it needs to save lives,” said Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland.
The bill states that the research would be unfold

Bush Admits Mistake, but Strategy Stays The Same

by Christopher Chantrill

PRESIDENT Bush admitted last night that he should have increased the troops in Iraq last year, according to Joseph Curl and Stephen Dinan in The Washington Times.

Mr. Bush yesterday said he was wrong both in his decision-making and in his assumptions.

"Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me," he said. "The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people — and it is unacceptable unfold

Is Bush's Troop Surge All For "McNaught?"

by Christopher Chantrill

LAST NIGHT President Bush announced a troop surge for Iraq, and all Americans wish him well. But everyone is bound to ask: Is the moment auspicious for a change in strategy? Is victory in the stars?

I’m glad you asked. It just so happens that Comet McNaught is in the evening sky right now. In fact the best time to see it is this weekend, according to Britain’s Daily unfold

Happiness Needs a Sense of Control

by Christopher Chantrill

EVERYONE worries about happiness these days, and in Britain, Tory leader David Cameron calls for attention to the General Wellbeing (GWB) rather than Gross Domestic Product. But Minette Marrin worries that you can’t expect people to be happy unless they are in control of their lives.

Yet not just in charity but in almost everything else the individual is losing that sense of control or hope for the future. We live unfold

Chavez. What Planet is He On?

by Christopher Chantrill

YOU HAVE to wonder. After a century of socialism, thug dictators are still extolling its virtues. As reported by Theresa Bradley and Alex Kennedy, socialism is going to be the salvation of the country.

"Building Venezuela's way to socialism, that's the only way to redemption and salvation of our country," Chavez, 52, said in his inaugural address to the National Assembly this morning in Caracas.

Oh unfold

Are the Democrats for Real

by Christopher Chantrill

WHAT IS it that really worries Republicans and conservatives as we lick our wounds after November? It is the nagging fear that the Democrats didn’t just win because it’s an off year election and the voters are in a foul mood.

Not that the voters don’t deserve to be a foul mood, mind you.

But what if the Democrats were executing a secret plan, a grand strategic concept, a new approach to politics and we right-wing foot-soldiers didn’t have a clue what hit us? That is what keeps us awake at night.

unfold

AJAX and The innerHTML Problem

by Christopher Chantrill

HERE AT Road to the Middle Class we are nothing if not modern. That means that the site ought to be LAMP compliant, using Linux, Apache, MySql, and PHP, and so it does. But now, according to unfold

Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/10/07 3:21 am ET

Dont Forget Most Old Media is Union Shop
by Christopher Chantrill
DEAR OLD TIME magazine is slimming down, according to The New York Times. Writes reporter David Carr

Time Inc. management, with the help of air cover from the consultants from McKinsey, is trying to cut costs to reflect brutal realities in the mass magazine business. At the end of the month, there will be significant layoffs at the magazine division, and it will not end with unfold

Do You Believe in Education Myths?

by Christopher Chantrill

WITH SOMETHING as politicized as education you always wonder about what you read in the paper or watch on the news. After all, the media is not called the media for nothing. It is a medium, a channel of communication. There is a lot of money in education. Money and power. With all that money and power, how much of what we know about education is true?

Jay Greene is an expert on education policy and he’s written about unfold

Let's Not Blame Conservatives On Education

by Christopher Chantrill

OPRAH IS getting a bit of flak because she is funding a school for girls in South Africa, according to Clarence Page.

"I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools (in America) that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there," she said. "If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they unfold

Stand Firm on Social Security!

by Christopher Chantrill

IS THE NEW Democratic Congress a big deal? Is it going to change the political weather, long term? Bill Steigerwald asked Fox News reporter Major Garrett about that.

There is bad news, very bad news. Says Garrett:

Also, I think there is movement afoot to deal with Social Security -- not on the president's terms, not on post-2004 election terms of personal accounts, but entirely on Democrat terms, unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/08/07 3:22 am ET

"Broken Windows" Eat My Dust
by Christopher Chantrill
IT HAD TO happen. Sooner or later some criminal justice entrepreneur would consign the "broken windows" theory of policing into the dustbin of history.

Broken Windows, remember, is the brilliant concept developed by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling and famously implemented in New York City by Joseph unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/06/07 5:15 am ET

Tasteless Atheists
by Christopher Chantrill
THERE HAVE been a lot of books written by atheists about the folly of religion recently, and they tend to take a rather high line with believers.

Apart from the usual bromides about religion causing wars, and religious people hopelessly missing the point about evolution, they proudly parade their "rational ethics" as a substitute for belief.

As Sam Schulman writes:

They write as if great minds had never before wrestled with the big questions unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/05/07 10:35 am ET

The Cars at the Detroit Auto Show
by Christopher Chantrill
WHICH IS more important? The news, according to Popular Mechanics, that Dodge has put an

8.4-liter aluminum V10 engine in the latest version of its super coupe/convertible to deliver 90 more horsepower and 0-60 mph acceleration time of under four seconds â€” not to mention a horsepower rating of 600[?]

Or the news that Chevrolet has thrown in the towel and produced a new 2008 Malibu "offering more expressive styling on completely unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/05/07 4:39 am ET

Speaker Pelosi pledges partnership
by Christopher Chantrill
TODAY THE Democrats formally took control of Congress as Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as Speaker of the House of Representatives. As Andrew Taylor reported for the AP, she told the House:

"I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship, and look forward to working with you on behalf of the American people," Mrs. Pelosi said in remarks prepared for her colleagues. "In this House, we may belong to different parties, unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/04/07 1:30 pm ET

A Lesson in Race Relations
by Christopher Chantrill
WE'VE ALL heard the one about Jesse Jackson admitting that, when he's being followed down the street on a dark night, it's nice to know that the chap behind him is white.

Even though it doesn't fit the MSM template, the fact is that young African Americans do have a deserved reputation for deliberate intimidation. Like this story reported by Larry Elder. The car in front of him at a traffic light failed to move when the light turned unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/04/07 8:22 am ET

Come Back to Class, Says Duke Administration
by Christopher Chantrill
OH GOOD. NOW that newly elected Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong has withdrawn charges of rape against the Duke Three the administration of Duke University has invited the two accused students still at the university to return to classes, according to the report of Fox News.
"As circumstances have evolved in this extraordinary case, we have attempted to balance recognition of the gravity of legal charges with the presumption of your innocence," Larry Moneta, unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/04/07 3:19 am ET

File This Under "Climaco Case"
by Christopher Chantrill
OK, I ADMIT it. When the New York Times gets in trouble, I enjoy it. The Germans, in their thoroughness, have a word for it: Schadenfreude. Or as some wag wrote: It isn’t enough for me to be happy. The rest of the world must be miserable.
I’m talking about the Climaco case, of course. Carmen Climaco makes her appearance in the coda of a long article in the Times Magazine about the criminalizing of abortion in El Salvador, “ unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/03/07 8:20 am ET

The Economist Discovers Pentecostalism
by Christopher Chantrill
AT THE ROAD to the Middle Class we believe that a critical component of the great transition from country life to city life is enthusiastic religion, and most useful of all, enthusiastic Christianity.
Wherever you find people trying to make it in the city you will find a spontaneous upwelling of enthusiastic Christianity.
The reason is simple. Enthusiastic Christianity gives ordinary people the tools they need to succeed in the city. It worked in Britain in the Industrial Revolution. It worked in the United unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/03/07 4:13 am ET

Poor Kids Do Better In Selective Schools
by Christopher Chantrill
BACK WHEN THE Brits declared war on their selective secondary school system Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared that the objective of the new comprehensive schools was "grammar schools for all," as Eric Anderson reports.
Back in the 1960s, you see, it was an article of faith in left-wing circles that the “11-plus” exam, which controlled access to selective secondary schools, was an abomination that unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/02/07 8:14 am ET

A Look at the "New Anger"
by Christopher Chantrill
WHICH SIDE is angrier, left or right? Stanley Kurtz reviews A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now by Peter Wood.
Used to be that Americans admired unfold
Sphere: Related Content | | perm | comment | print | 01/02/07 3:51 am ET