Why I don’t want the U.S. to be a little bit Europe

Stop what you’re doing and go read this article (in the NY Times!! By an NPR reporter!!) on why Europe is failing.

Via Ken Wheaton.

(On a totally different note, I don’t know the linking hat-tip/via rules anymore. It used to be that you read something on someone’s blog, wrote about it on your own blog and linked back to their blog with a hat-tip. Now, I don’t know how it works. I saw Ken’s link on Facebook but no one links to Facebook, as most people have private pages, so I chose to link his blog. But I also saw the link in the post below on Facebook and chose to link James Taranto’s twitter instead of his Best of the Web column. It’s so complicated in 2012!)

I make the rules, I don’t follow them

This is hilarious:

Via James Taranto.

Class-less in America

I have a piece in the New York Post today on what class means in America.

Me on TV

I was on NY1 yesterday doing a political rundown opposite Civil Rights attorney Ron Kuby. The video is here.

I asked Kuby for a picture to show my pothead friends (he was famously mentioned in Big Lebowski). I am cracking up in the shot (but hey, my hair looks good):

Candidate Mitt Romney

I wrote yesterday, before the NH primary, that the only chance of any kind of upset is someone other than Mitt winning first place in New Hampshire.

I was on my way to a results-watching party at the other end of the city last night and at 8:01pm, a minute after polls closed, every station called it for Mitt. I was still in the cab.

So, it’s probably over.

I guess Rick Perry can make his last stand in South Carolina but like other obvious winners before him, like Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson last time around, the problem for Perry is that his campaign has been so terrible that I don’t expect it to magically get better in time to put up a real challenge.

But hey, it’s not the campaign season if we don’t have a lot of pointless speculation. Give me yours, if you’ve got any, in the comment section.

A senator, his gay lover, and a garish mansion owned by the gay lover’s mother

A state senator in New York pleads guilty to corruption. Yawn, right? Read the story and decide.

Listen

Conservative band Madison Rising denied performing permit at…Zuccotti Park. Yes, the park that was “occupied” for over two months with no permits at all. Read Todd Seavey’s article about the situation and the predictable tolerant reaction they’re getting here.

And check their music out here.

So real

My latest piece for the NY Post warns that people who value authenticity in candidates above all else might not like the realness they get.

This

“Again and again he combined incendiary rhetoric with irresolute action, bringing Republicans all the political costs of a hardline position without actually taking one”

- National Review Editors.

Not Newt, please.

Thank you

My friend Vlad posted a link on Facebook to this list of “30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself.” It’s a pretty good list, the writer recommends a book I absolutely loved “Stumbling on Happiness” (read it, it’s life-changing) but I particularly enjoyed #30:

Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

I am grateful in general but he’s right that it needs to be an everyday thing. When I’m thankful for my blessings I’m happier, more energetic, more focused. It’s easy to get mired in minor problems and not see the great things in life. A few weeks away from new years my resolution is to try to remember that more often.

Happy 9th birthday, Chanukah!

My latest for WNYC’s A Free Country: The fact that Jews vote Democrat continues to boggle the mind.

Everyone has one

My latest article in the NY Post is a about a problem common to conservatives in blue states: the holiday party pest who has been waiting all year to give his opinion on Sarah Palin to his sole conservative acquaintance.

Heavy heart

It’s time for Herman Cain to go.

Quote of the Day

“If I state it in a way that helps other people state it as well, that’s what advancing a conversation is about.”

– US Senate candidate in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren (D), on her viral Youtube video which is repeated ad nauseam by liberals arguing for higher taxes.

Y’know, I often get accused of getting my talking points from Fox News (not a newsflash: I don’t watch any cable news at all, none, I get all my news from the internet and save TV watching for reality shows) yet Elizabeth Warren can be blatant about putting out talking points and framing it as a “advancing a conversation” and that’s totally fine.

Ripped-off

Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul supporters have a complaint about the CBS debate that half-aired last Saturday. And they’re completely right.

On Penn State

I have a column in the NY Post today comparing the Penn State horror to Kitty Genovese being killed while her neighbors watched and also noting this is a total lapse of the individual heroism 9/11 produced. If you like it then please “like” it over on the NY Post page, tweet it, etc.

NY1 Last Night

My clip from my NY1 appearance is here.