Personality Cult Still Creepy, Unbecoming
November 28, 2013
Jim Geraghty remarks,
A healthy society does not feature a leader who sends messages to his followers, asking them to make a pledge to have a conversation with their families about his agenda at Thanksgiving. This is cult-like.
The Web site he’s talking about is BarackObama.com. Read all about it.
Obamacare Forces Insurance Companies to Pay for Quack Medicine
November 26, 2013
Kevin Williamson at National Review Online has some interesting thoughts on science and politics: “Qi Bono? Obamacare and the New Age quacks”. Excerpt:
. . . the Affordable Care Act includes a rule that insurers “shall not discriminate” against services provided by any licensed or formally recognized provider of health-care services, which means that such traffickers in pseudoscience as homeopathic healers, acupuncturists, herbalists, chiropractors, and the like will be covered under Obamacare, at least in states that recognize such quackery.
R. I. P. Kennedy, Lewis, and Huxley
November 22, 2013
President Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley—all three men died on the same day in the same year: November 22nd, 1963. On this fiftieth anniversary of their deaths, Eric Schulzke at the Mormon-owned Deseret News discusses the three men’s spiritual beliefs and lives at some length. (He also mentions Catholic Peter Kreeft’s book attempting to bring the three men’s beliefs into conversation with each other, literally.) British pro-liberty politician Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph, Matthew J. Franck at the Catholic First Things, and evangelical columnist Cal Thomas also offer some thoughts.
For my part, I’ll just mention that Anglican apologist C. S. Lewis (especially his book Mere Christianity) was a big part of how I first converted to Christianity. I recommend basically everything by him—Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, That Hideous Strength, Till We Have Faces, and more.
Hip Replacement
November 22, 2013
Mark Steyn, as usual, is must-read material. He had a great line about Obamacare and our celebrity in chief in a recent column, “Obamacare’s Magical Thinkers”:
Perhaps things will get so bad the coolest president ever will no longer seem quite so hip. But, alas, you’ll have to wait three years for a hip replacement. That’s government health care for you.
Should Airline Security Be Privatized?
November 21, 2013
Or rather re-privatized—as the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards reminds us, the TSA has only been around for about a decade (it was created in response to September 11th). Read all about it: “Privatizing the Transportation Security Administration” (full policy analysis here in PDF form).
Excerpt:
After more than a decade of experience, it is clear that the creation of TSA and the federal takeover of airport screening was a mistake. Auditors have found that TSA’s screening performance has been no better, and possibly worse, than private screening. And TSA has become known for mismanagement, dubious investments, and security failures. Former TSA chief Kip Hawley noted last year that the agency is “hopelessly bureaucratic.” And recent congressional reports have blasted TSA for “costly, counter intuitive, and poorly executed” plans and for having an “enormous, inflexible and distracted bureaucracy.”
2013 Cincinnati Election Results
November 10, 2013
The Hamilton County Board of Elections has the results in PDF form and in a detailed “interactive” format, including maps.
Mayor’s race by precinct: green = Cranley, blue = Qualls
2013 Cincinnati Election Endorsement Compendium
November 2, 2013
Update (November 10th, 2013): See how the candidates did here: “2013 Cincinnati Election Results”
Candidates for City Council
(twenty-one candidates for nine seats on nine-member council)
Amy Murray R C G Ch H B P S
Charlie Winburn (i) R Ch H B L P F S
Christopher Smitherman (i) G Ch H B P F S
P. G. Sittenfeld (i) D G Ch B P F T
Kevin Flynn C G H B P F
Enjoyment and Contemplation 