Boots on the Ground

Kicked to the Curb
The stocks of Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger spiked again after the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings last month. They also moved sharply in advance of President Obama’s announcement on Tuesday of measures to curb gun violence. (New York Times, 1/5/2016)

Rumors persist that Smith & Wesson is preparing to name Obama its Salesman of the Year. No one is responsible for more gun sales in America. No one.


Spin Control
Liberal spin can’t disguise that the law is failing on every level other than expanding coverage—as if anyone ever argued that a new entitlement couldn’t reduce the uninsured rate. The huge premium increases and other disruption in the health-care markets that the critics predicted explain why the law continues to be so unpopular with the public six long years after passage. (Wall Street Journal, 1/5/2016)

"...as if anyone ever argued that a new entitlement couldn't reduce the uninsured rate." Exactly the point. Obama and Democrats offered people free or heavily subsidized insurance and then take a victory lap over the success of Obamacare. 


Life Sentence
Apparently, all it takes to get Muslims to sign up for a life of terrorism is one speech by a wealthy reality-show star who holds no office. I mean, joining ISIS is no small commitment; it’s not like changing your vote come Election Day, or registering for a different party. The political and media elites really want us to believe that all it takes to get Muslims to devote their lives to ISIS is a speech by Donald Trump. (David Cole, 12/31/2015, Taki's Magazine) 
http://takimag.com/article/donald_trump_carnage_recruiter_david_cole/print#ixzz3wb3dwFIc

Ann Coulter linked to this great article in her recent column. Why is it that Americans - who have suffered terrible atrocities at the hands of self-proclaimed Muslim zealots - have to walk on eggshells for fear of offending Muslims?


Imposition
For eight years, Barack Obama has imposed failing economic policies on the country, even as he has brilliantly exploited the results for political gain. Democrats produced stagnating wages, rising prices, economic insecurity and failed antipoverty programs—and then somehow blamed the resulting inequality and fear and destitution on conservatives. (Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 1/7/2016)

Explanation? Obama owns nothing. Not Russian aggression. Not Middle East chaos. Not skyrocketing health insurance premiums. Certainly not economic malaise. Three-quarters of the media and half of the country do not hold him accountable. 


Dog Eat Dog
The State Department provided an “inaccurate or incomplete” response when a watchdog group asked in 2012 whether Hillary Clinton had used any alternate email accounts, saying it had no relevant records, even though dozens of top officials knew that she relied on a private email address for official communications, an independent investigator reported Thursday. (New York Times, 1/7/2016)

Cynical yet?


Elitists
Since at least the early 1990s, a lot of the public has been intimidated into keeping its mouth shut and head down about subjects in the political and social life of the country that the elites stipulated as beyond discussion or dispute. (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal, 1/6/2016)

Good column by Henninger about how Donald Trump and Ben Carson have confronted political correctness.