Unca Darrell

NOVEMBER 30 / William McGurn is an optimist

Without intending to, however, he makes the case for declinism.

DURING THE 2012 campaign, we conservatives had great sport at the expense of the Obama administration's "Life of Julia" -- a cartoon explaining the cradle-to-grave government programs that provided for Julia's happy and successful life.

The president, alas, had the last laugh.

NOVEMBER 29 / Texas: not a death-spiral state

ELEVEN STATES are in such fiscal danger that Forbes recommends against investing there, either in houses, businesses, or municipal bonds. These states "can look forward to a rising tax burden, deteriorating state finances and an exodus of employers."

Two factors determine whether a state makes this elite list of fiscal hellholes. The first is . . .  

NOVEMBER 28 / The Houston Chronicle celebrated Thanksgiving

I'm serious.

The editorial page of the Houston Chronicle celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in more than a decade, probably more like twenty years.

The newspaper's usual practice is . . .

NOVEMBER 27 / A Kilday Hart quickie

CLEARING MY IN-BOX of junk, I ran across this specimen. It tells what the Houston Chronicle's premiere local columnist thinks about rank-and-file Republicans:

NOVEMBER 26 / Kristol on civilization and the West

THERE ARE some facts so obvious that only a liberal would deny them. One of them is that . . .

NOVEMBER 26 / Flexibility in shaking down taxpayers

THE CONVENTIONAL wisdom is that the housing loan bubble is behind us. Yes, greedy lenders once forced -- love that word -- forced poor people to take mortgages they could not afford, then forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to guarantee the loans, then forced taxpayers to pick up the losses. And, yes, we're still suffering from the financial hangover. But that's all behind us now. We're climbing out of the hole.

Well, the conventional wisdom is . . . 

NOVEMBER 23 / If you doubt that the Clever Ones . . .

. . . who produce the New York Times despise America as it is, regard the contempt crystallized in this gem:

NOVEMBER 22 / Give thanks

TODAY I GIVE thanks for . . .

NOVEMBER 21 / The Chronicle comes out in favor of . . .

. . . oath-breaking.

NOVEMBER 20 / Here's one vote in favor of . . .

. . . sequestration.

That is the name for $1.2 billion in automatic spending cuts coming January 1 because the famous super committee famously failed to agree how to cut the deficit.

Conventional wisdom says this will be a disaster. One-half of the cut will hit defense spending and the other one-half will reduce domestic spending, not including Social Security and other sacred cows, both spread over the next ten years.

Critics are nearly unanimous that the cuts will destroy civilization as we know it, by hollowing out the military and sending starving kids into the streets to trade iPhones for Cheerios.

The critics may be right, but we still ought to do it. Here's why.