Author Archives: Heather Mac Donald

“Appeasement” watch

I expect the charge that Obama brought on this latest terrorist attempt with his Nobel-Prize-inducing multilateral delusions and toadying to Muslims to start rolling in any minute now.  Meanwhile, we are undoubtedly going to get yet another layer of after-the-fact … Continue reading

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Post-Christmas economic vent

Following Derb’s vent, I have to get this one off my chest, however elementary the sentiment:  If I hear one more Democrat (and occasional Republican) in the House or Senate condescend to business, I am going to throw up.  Today … Continue reading

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A Christmas joke

A leader in the New York State Republican Party (admittedly not a powerful domain) recently concluded a dinner presentation with the following joke:  “To those of the Christian faith, Merry Christmas!  To those of the Jewish faith, Happy Hanukkah!  And … Continue reading

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Medical miracles

The Lutheran Hour takes over New York’s sole remaining classical music station for part of Sunday mornings.   Its announcer, whose stylized speech inflections recall a more theatrical era of radio or a pitch for hair elixir, was today as usual … Continue reading

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Gee, thanks, Pro-Lifers

The just-negotiated Senate health care bill contains a big new pot of money to make it easier for pregnant teens to raise a child: The federal government would provide $25 million a year for a “pregnancy assistance fund.” The money … Continue reading

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Huckabee and the Tacoma police massacre

A specious leftist belief that the criminal justice system is racist has undoubtedly led to more disastrous criminal justice decisions than a specious religious belief that one is in touch with one’s favored divinity.  And perhaps Mike Huckabee’s high rate … Continue reading

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Immaculate Conception: The Inner-city Version

Seven and a half months into Ta-Shai Pendleton’s first pregnancy, her child was stillborn. Then in early 2008, she bore a daughter prematurely.  Soon after, Ms. Pendleton moved from a community in Racine that was thick with poverty to a … Continue reading

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Syncopation and Thanksgiving

The New England colonists balanced Thanksgiving feasts with petitionary fasting, known as days of “public humiliation and prayer:” Pleas for rain during spells of drought were the most common reason for fasting. But Puritans also fasted whenever a comet, an … Continue reading

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Mammograms v. buying a loaf of bread

The furor over the recent mammogram recommendation illustrates how distorted our assumptions about health care and health insurance have become, distortions which the Senate and House bills only exacerbate. In a saner world, where medical consumers paid for routine services, … Continue reading

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The Feds Feed the Children

The Agriculture Secretary was promoting his department’s new hunger (or, in contemporary parlance: “food insecurity”) survey on CSPAN this morning, and promising to expand the federal government’s role in feeding children.  We do a good job with school lunches and … Continue reading

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