Blogs for 2007 - Road to the Middle Class

ONE THING you can say about President Bush. He makes a decision and then accepts the consequences. Back in 2001 he decided to restrict the use of federal funds in research on embryonic stem cells.

As we know, Democrats decided that they had an issue. So they dragged out helpless victims and Ron Reagan to argue that stem cells would help the blind see and the lame walk. Presidential candidate John Edwards got in on the act, as you would expect.

Obviously the only thing that stood in the way of a unfold

What Should Harry Do?

by Christopher Chantrill

YES, WHAT should Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) do? In case you forgot, here is Clifford D. May on Harry Reid.

Pity poor Harry Reid. Back in April, the Senate Majority Leader proclaimed the war in Iraq “lost.” Two months before General David Petraeus had in place the reinforcements he needed to implement his bold, new strategy — which included a “surge” of operations against al-Qaeda forces unfold

Middle Class Benefit Most from Welfare State

by Christopher Chantrill

WE HAVE been banging on for weeks here about the middle-class S-CHIP chiselers, liberal slackers who get to be first in line when there is free government money going for expensive things like health insurance.

This week in Britain the Civitas think tank issued a report on how the middle class in Britain get first in line in the British National Health Service (NHS).

In Quite Like Heaven? Nick unfold

Revived Libertarians

by Christopher Chantrill

SINCE THE shock of 9/11 we haven’t heard much from libertarians, not until Ron Paul ran for president. Ron Paul will lose, of course, writes Patrick Ruffini. But he might win by losing. That’s what Pat Robertson did in 1988.

Pat Robertson’s 1988 campaign signaled that Christian Conservatives had arrived in the GOP. Ron Paul is doing the same for libertarians.

So, on Ruffini’s view, Ron unfold

Income tax in the United States

by Christopher Chantrill

THE CHAPS at Wikipedia have a nice article on the US Income tax: Income tax in the United States, and very good one it is.

But the article only had a partial table of income tax rates. Until now. Yes now you can go and look at the history of income tax rates over at Wikipedia, courtesy of the tax research experts here at Road to the Middle Class. Here’s a sneak unfold

In Guatemala Today

by Christopher Chantrill

IN THE HIGHLANDS of Guatemala it’s one volcano after another. Of course, they are all extinct. For now. And the tourist hotels are conveniently located to give a good view of the nearby volcano. Volcanoes do look cute—until it rains an they let loose a mudslide.

Since Guatemala has been a pawn in US politics over recent decades, with poster girl Rigoberta Menchu as a victim of US imperialism, you have to go there to get a decent picture of what it’s really like.

And what it’s really unfold

No Child Left Behind. End It or Mend It?

by Christopher Chantrill

DON’T blame me, says conservative elder Paul Weyrich. “I opposed NCLB from the beginning.” All it does is add a layer of bureaucracy. And the study from Cato Institute, “End It, Don’t Mend It: What To Do With No Child Left Behind,” seems to back him up.

[W]hile both 4th- and 8th-grade math scores unfold

A Tale of Two Narratives

by Christopher Chantrill

HOW’S the American family? Time to write the obituary yet? According to a recent Brookings Institution report, writes Maggie Gallagher, not too bad.

Two-thirds of us who were children in the late-1960s have grown up to earn more (adjusted for inflation) than our own parents did at the same age. By 2006 the median family income of the adults in this study was $71,900, up 29 unfold

Income Mobility

by Christopher Chantrill

OUR FRIENDS at the Wall Street Journal edit page (not to be confused with the lefties in the Journal newsroom) have spent a lot of energy over the years refuting the Two Nations concept first enunciated 160 years ago by conservative Benjamin Disraeli. You know how it goes in his novel Sybil, or The Two Nations:

Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy... the rich and the poor.

The unfold

Inventing the New Conservatism: Education

by Christopher Chantrill

WE CONSERVATIVES are running around wondering what the new conservatism means. And we at Road to the Middle Class are doing our part. You can read the latest effort here. It’s a riff on David Cameron’s speech in Manchester on co-operatives.

The transplant American unfold

Entitlements: Life is not a defined benefit

by Christopher Chantrill

THE GAO CHAPPIES issued a report on the nation’s entitlements recently, according to Star Parker. They described the situation as a party on the beach while the “tsunami” gets ever closer.

You can get the same idea by taking a look at usgovernmentspending.com. It shows unmistakably how big entitlement programs sit on top of the government unfold

Hillary's No Maggie. Who Cares?

by Christopher Chantrill

HEY, IT’S worked in the past. When Hillary Clinton played the helpless woman in the campaign for the Senate in 2000, it worked. When she wore Pretty in Pink to blame a right-wing conspiracy for her husband’s political problems, it worked.

So why shouldn’t she blame the boys for ganging up on her?

And who cares that Hillary is no Margaret Thatcher? Peggy Noonan reminds us about the Iron Lady.

unfold

Rangel's Taxes Raise Republican Morale

by Christopher Chantrill

LAST WEEK good old Charlie Rangel (D-NY), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, unveiled the “mother of all tax bills” that lowers corporate tax rates, fixes the AMT, and raises marginal tax rates rather smartly on people earning over $100,000.

Really nothing remarkable. It reflects the Democratic idea that you should run the nation’s income stream through expert bureaucratic institutions rather than through enterprising individuals.

Republicans are ecstatic. They see an issue to run on unfold

Rail Still the Fashion?

by Christopher Chantrill

ECONOMIST Randal O’Toole is upfront about government planning, and he’s written all about it in his book The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future unfold

We Should Thank the Socialists

by Christopher Chantrill

DEAR OLD lefty Guardian columnist George Monbiot has suddenly woken up to an international nightmare of injustice. It’s lefty-trendy “biofuels,” fuels made from crops like sugar cane, corn, and even, in Swaziland, cassava. But all is not well in the Brave New World of Swazi biofuels.

Forty per cent of its people are facing acute food shortages. So what has the government decided to export? Biofuel made from one unfold

Fixing the mortgage crisis, but how?

by Christopher Chantrill

NOW THAT the mortgages are well and truly melting down the experts are gathering to offer advice.

Here’s Josiah Baker, professor at George Mason University, with his ideas.

The mortgage crisis requires legislation that supports punishing existing lenders for poor or misleading businesses practices. Specifically, enforcement must focus on originators and brokers.

But you could look far and wide to find unfold

Who Needs ID Anyway?

by Christopher Chantrill

FOR ORDINARY Americans the flap over illegal aliens and drivers licenses is a no-brainer. Nobody should get a drivers license or state ID unless they can prove their bona fides.

It’s hard therefore to figure out why presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was waffling about drivers licenses for illegal aliens in New York State at the presidential debate earlier this week. Writes John Fund:

At first she seemed to endorse the unfold

Larry Elder on Race in America

by Christopher Chantrill

RADIO TALK-SHOW HOST Larry Elder belongs to the Cosby-Sowell-Thomas wing of the black community.

So he was not that impressed with the young black woman trainee at a San Francisco airport car rental counter. Not when she said:

"You know, I should have finished my training program some time ago, but because I’m black, they’re making me stay longer."

That’s a new one. unfold

TAGS

Action

The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness... But to make a man act [he must have] the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Chappies

“But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.” —Freddy Arbuthnot
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

China and Christianity

At first, we thought [the power of the West] was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity.
David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing

Churches

[In the] higher Christian churches� they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

Class War

In England there were always two sharply opposed middle classes, the academic middle class and the commercial middle class. In the nineteenth century, the academic middle class won the battle for power and status... Then came the triumph of Margaret Thatcher... The academics lost their power and prestige and... have been gloomy ever since.
Freeman Dyson, “The Scientist as Rebel”

Conservatism

Conservatism is the philosophy of society. Its ethic is fraternity and its characteristic is authority — the non-coercive social persuasion which operates in a family or a community. It says ‘we should...’.
Danny Kruger, On Fraternity

Conservatism's Holy Grail

What distinguishes true Conservatism from the rest, and from the Blair project, is the belief in more personal freedom and more market freedom, along with less state intervention... The true Third Way is the Holy Grail of Tory politics today - compassion and community without compulsion.
Minette Marrin, The Daily Telegraph

Conversion

“When we received Christ,” Phil added, “all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.”
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh

Democratic Capitalism

I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all. In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Drang nach Osten

There was nothing new about the Frankish drive to the east... [let] us recall that the continuance of their rule depended upon regular, successful, predatory warfare.
Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion

Education

“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State

Faith & Purpose

“When we began first to preach these things, the people appeared as awakened from the sleep of ages—they seemed to see for the first time that they were responsible beings...”
Finke, Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990

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