A Liberal Faces Up to The Wal-Mart Phenomenon. Almost

What do we liberals do about Wal-Mart, worries liberal Robert Reich? Let’s admit it, we liberals all
buy books from Amazon, even if we say we like the community bookstore round the corner. So how can we get
low prices while helping the little guy?
Cartels and regulation: that’s
his highly advanced and sophisticated answer. Come on, Reich. You liberals can do better than that.
I thought that conservatives were supposed to be the standpatters. The bottom
line is that if we Americans want to earn princely salaries, then we have to earn it, by being better trained, better
capitalized, better managed, and better educated.
You liberals are uniquely qualified to do something about that.
You yourselves can go down the street to the education cartel—you know, the one called the National Education
Assocation—and tell them to get with the program. When you’ve done that, and the education system becomes flexible and responsive to the needs
of its customers, then let us start talking about cartels and social regulation.

Steyn Creates Threatening Learning Environment for Euros

It’s lucky that pundit Mark Steyn doesn’t teach in a university. He’d be up before the faculty senate
for creating a threatening environment for his Euro students. He tells us that the admininstration
is divided
between those who think that: “a) Europe is a smugly irritating but irrelevant backwater; or
b) Europe is a smugly irritating but irrelevant backwater where the whole powder keg’s about to go up.”
Then he chuckles over EU constitution drafter Gisgard d’Estaing’s claim to be the Euro Jefferson.
Sorry pal. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. It was Madison that wrote the Constitution.

Iraq War All But Won

A little bit of gloating is starting to surface among the US brass in Iraq, as the remaining
“insurgents” seem to be increasingly ineffective.
“It will be some months before the news media recognize it,
and a few months more before they acknowledge it, but the war in Iraq is all but won,”
writes
columnist Jack Kelly. The proof of this is that Senator Clinton has joined
the coalition of the willing. Welcome aboard, Senator. The bigger issue
is how the MSM is going to play being wrong about everything. Bring out the memory hole, fellahs.

School Vouchers. In Arizona

We won’t see school vouchers
here in the Soviet of Washington for a millennium or so, but it’s
good to see that Arizonians are getting an honest debate about it. Vouchers raise student performance
by 5 to 10 percentage points. And they raise parental satisfaction.

Bush's East Asia Game

On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Senator Hillary Clinton accused the Bush Administration of dropping the ball on North Korea. But
this observer detects a deep game
in progress: playing the Japan card against China. Card by card, step
by step, it will go on until the Chinese put the brakes on North Korea. This week’s card is an announcement that
“Japan agrees in principle to defend Taiwan from mainland Chinese invasion.” It was announced
by the foreign ministers and defense ministers of Japan and the United States. What dropped ball was
that, Senator?

"Quite a Racket"

The Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) heads to Britain and becomes
embedded in the
welfare state. You can get grants and disability allowances if your child is diagnosed with ADHD. Now
there’s a concept! “It’s quite a racket,” according to a postmaster dispensing weekly benefits
to the parents of ADHD victims.

Take Me Back!

Time reports that the Iraqi rebels are
negotiating
with the US about ending the insurgency (now why would they want to do that?. I’d
say that the US position should be the same as Salome’s: Bring me the head of Zarqawi! Then we’ll
talk about reconciliation.