Unca Darrell

JULY 9 / Stratfor on the U.S.-Russia summit

THE IMPORTANT NEWS from the summit was as follows: first, no one screwed up, and second, U.S.-Russian relations did not get worse -- and might actually have improved.

JULY 8 / Samuelson on health care, welfare

IT'S HARD to know whether President Obama's health-care "reform" is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three.

JULY 1 / Uncreative destruction in Cambodia

WHILE the Obama administration was working out details of how to bulldoze urban neighborhoods to save them, Unca D helpfully listed a couple of other leaders who fundamentally transformed their counties with similar programs -- Nicholae Ceaucescu in Romania and and Julius Nyerere in Tanzania. 

"Good entry," wrote one reader, "but . . . .

JUNE 26 / In case you did not hear BHO's cold answer or Rush's takedown

FROM Wednesday night's ABC infomercial for Obamacare (lightly edited):

JUNE 25 / One-by-one, some journalists will admit the obvious. Here's one.

PHIL BRONSTEIN, "Bronstein at Large: Love or lust, Obama and the fawning press need to get a room," sfgate.com, June 8, 2009:

This guy [meaning President Obama] is good. Really good. And, frankly, so far, we [meaning the press] are not.

JUNE 19 / When even your friends start talking about your love affair with the first-person singular pronoun

STANLEY FISH, "Yes I Can," New York Times, June 9, 2009:

By the time of the address to the Congress on Feb. 24, the royal we has flowered into the naked "I": "As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress." "I called for action." "I pushed for quick action." "I have told each of my cabinet." "I've appointed a proven and aggressive inspector general." "I refuse to let that happen. "I will not spend a single penny." "I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves." "I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term." The last is particularly telling: it says, there's going to be a second term . . . .

MAY 22 / But enough about national security

DICK CHENEY's national-security speech yesterday had 5,885 words. "I," "me," and "my" accounted for 47 of them. That's an average of one first-person singular pronoun ever 125th word.

President Obama's prebuttal . . .

MAY 21 / Stuart Taylor on Supreme Court nominee

STUART TAYLOR, Jr., is "cautiously betting that Obama will choose a moderate liberal who believes in judicial restraint."

MAY 20 / Next time, read the transcript

Editorial, "Plea for dialogue," Houston Chronicle, May 20, 2009:

[President Obama] recounted a letter he had received after winning the Democratic presidential nomination from a doctor who described himself as a pro-life Christian.

MAY 15 / So why's he doing it?

ONE OF THE BEST critiques of President Obama's massive deficit spending came this week from . . . President Obama.