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We’ve been discussing here at the Hayride for a whole year now a concept we first saw forming in a speech given by James Piereson at the American Enterprise Institute last fall, developing in a lot of the videos put out by Bill Whittle after the 2012 election and approached from a slightly different direction by Kevin Williamson in his book The End Is Near And It’s Going To Be Awesome earlier this year. Namely, that American society is evolving beyond that which can be governed by the Industrial Age bureaucratic state the Democrat Party is so committed to, and...

Years ago, someone said that according to the laws of aerodynamics, bumblebees cannot fly. But the bumblebees, not knowing the laws of aerodynamics, go ahead and fly anyway. Something like that happens among people. There have been many ponderous academic writings and dour editorials in the mainstream media lamenting that most people born poor cannot rise in American society anymore. Meanwhile, many poor immigrants arrive here from various parts of Asia, and rise on up the ladder anyway.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From Saudi Arabia to Israel, traditional U.S. allies in the Middle East are beginning to ask: Is America turning its back on us? President Barack Obama's diplomatic overtures to old foe Iran and his last-minute refusal to attack Syria have officials in Israel, the Gulf countries and Turkey wondering if Washington is deliberately neglecting them to avoid being dragged into a Middle East facing deeper sectarian strife and concerns that Tehran may be seeking a nuclear bomb. Media reports that the U.S. National Security Agency may have spied on the leaders of Germany, Mexico and Brazil have...

The College Football Czar: Week 1 If you're reading the College Football Czar’s week one picks, that must mean that yet another long summer of terrible TV is about to come to a merciful end. So – if you’ve become so starved for anything remotely sportslike that you’ve resorted to watching ESPN’s Nine for IX series, and pretended to like it ... If you’ve actually found yourself engaged in discussions about whether it’s fair for Wigan Athletic to be relegated after winning the FA Cup ... If you not only managed to sit through the entire Tennessee Orange-White Game, but...

One time I was doing post-op rounds, dressed in regular / street clothes but with my hospital ID around my neck. One of the women I was visiting spoke only Spanish and was in the midst of sharing a very painful, personal story with me when a medical team of some kind walked in, also on rounds. I was sitting at eye-level with my patient, speaking Spanish to her in a low voice when the group walked in: an elderly male physician in a long white coat; a younger woman, also in a white coat; and a young man, probably...

The key 'R' word is Republican, not Romney With all the efforts to understand the recent election defeat, a lot of the focus has been on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his campaign. That is exactly the wrong way to begin analyzing the outcome of the 2012 campaign. The focus on Romney as a candidate is profoundly misleading for those who want to prepare for future Republican victories. Any analysis of recent Republican presidential results will reveal a systemic failure which can’t be ascribed to Romney. The last clear Republican presidential victory was in 1988 when Vice President George...

The College Football Czar Week 14 Week thirteen in review: Notre Dame did what it had to do, by defeating another diminished opponent to finish the regular season at 12-0. The Fighting Irish defense stuffed the USC ground game on a late goal-line stand, and harassed freshman QB Max Wittek into two interceptions in a 22-13 victory. That presumably advances them to the BCS championship game in Miami, where they will face the winner of the SEC title game. Alabama and Georgia both dominated their rivalry games, which eliminated all other contending teams from the chase. The college football czar...

The Leftists are angry about Glenn Beck's popular art work titled "Obama in Pee Pee". Suddenly they have revived their platitudes about "respecting the office of the presidency"... (video)

The College Football Czar Week 13 Week twelve in review: The top two teams in the BCS ratings were upset, which, according to the media template, has thrown the championship picture into “chaos.” Top-ranked Kansas State should now be out of the running altogether, after getting the phlegm beaten out of them by ninth-place Baylor, 52-24. Oregon, having lost to Stanford 17-14 in overtime, still has a chance, although they need help from a couple conference rivals. Not only did Oregon lose a much better game to a much better opponent than K-State did, but the human polls are bound...

The College Football Czar Week 12 Week eleven in review: Alabama was bounced from the #1 position in the BCS, though not out of the national championship picture, in a 29-24 loss to Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide spotted the Conjunction Boys a 20-0 lead, before pulling within a field goal in the third quarter. A&M, defying well-founded expectations, opted not to choke this time. Although the SEC now dominates the BCS ratings, that league would not currently have a representative in the national championship game. This week’s ratings place Kansas State #1, followed by the only other eligible unbeatens,...

The College Football Czar Week 11 Week ten in review: For the second time this season, the College Football Czar must issue a retraction. A few dozen more, and he may find himself writing for the New York Times. Last week, he wrote that Air Force was looking to clinch the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy against Army, when in fact, they were merely trying to stay in contention for it, having lost to Navy in overtime earlier this season. Army’s 41-21 shocker over the AFA means that possession of the trophy will be decided in the season-ending Army-Navy game. All the undefeated...

In this election the Republican Party ran two wholly inoffensive blue state Republicans on a platform of jobs at a time when the economy was everyone’s chief concern and the incumbent had absolutely failed to fix the economy. And they lost. The Monday — or Wednesday — morning quarterbacks will have a fine time debating what Mitt Romney should have done differently. The red Republicans will say that he should have been more aggressive and should have hit Obama on Benghazi. The blue Republicans will blame a lack of outreach to Latinos. Some will blame Sandy, others will blame Christie...

The College Football Czar Week 10 Week nine in review: As this issue goes to print, there remain massive power outages on the Eastern seaboard due to Hurricane Sandy. Naturally, this poses the potential for some of this weekend’s games to be postponed or canceled, although there is no known instance of such at this time. Honestly, the College Football Czar had fully intended to pick Oklahoma over Notre Dame, and he has no idea what possessed him to type in Notre Dame as the winner, but the published pick is the published pick, and the clairvoyant Broward County canvassing...

The College Football Czar Week 9 Week eight in review: It was another above-average week for the College Football Czar, who went 14-4, improving his overall record to 106-50 and his winning percentage to .679. Among his better picks were the demise of the then-undefeated but badly inflated Cincinnati Bearcats, and Louisiana-Monroe’s 43-42 overtime win over Western Kentucky (predicted score 33-32). Although week eight certainly had its share of excitement, it did very little to shake up the rankings. The highest-ranked team to lose to a lower-ranked or unranked opponent was the #21 Bearcats, whose defeat is referenced above. #24...

The College Football Czar Week 8 Week seven in review: The College Football Czar missed out on an opportunity to add to his win total by not reiterating his week one prediction of Texas A&M over Louisiana Tech. The Aggies held on to beat LTU 59-57 after bolting out to an early 27-0 lead, in a zany game whose margin of victory was provided by a defensive safety on a blocked extra point return. Because the variables change week to week, the Czar would have had to make his pick over again in week seven, but he neglected to do...

So everyone, I'm new here. Hated Obama in 2008 but wasn't crazy about McCain and knew he would lose anyway. This year I was supporting Romney more as an Anti-Obama vote until the debate - which has fired me up and actually made me as much pro-Romney as Anti-Obama (which I suspect is the case around the country). I'm also a huge statistics wonk, and I watch polls, trends, demographics, etc. Until the debate, I figured the election would be close and Obama would squeak out a win. Right now, though, I think that Obama will probably lose and here's...

The College Football Czar Week 6 Week five in review: The College Football Czar declined to pad his record by including any of last week’s mismatches involving highly-ranked teams, but still managed to compile his best record to this point in the season, at 15-4. For the season, he is now 70-32, for a .686 winning percentage. The Czar noticed several linemen around the country last week who were wearing very wide black belts that appeared to be some kind of protective device for their backs. The odd thing was that they were wearing them over their uniforms. If you...

The College Football Czar Week 5 Week four in review: It was another tough week for the Big Ten, which is starting to look like a second-echelon BCS-AQ conference, alongside the ACC and the Big East. Michigan proved the Alabama debacle was no fluke, while Iowa fell at home to Central Michigan. Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State struggled mightily in games that looked like total mismatches on paper, while Illinois looked like a tune-up opponent for Louisiana Tech. Happily, the College Football Czar fared considerably better, following up his worst week to this point of the season with a...

The College Football Czar Week 4 Week three in review: The College Football Czar barely averted a losing record last week, clawing out a dismal record of 9-8. For the season, his record stands at 41-24, for a .631 winning percentage. When the Czar has blown the big games, he’s been really thorough about it, as evidenced by his upset pick of Wake Forest against Florida State. It turned out that FSU had every bit as easy a time in its ACC opener as it had in its first two games against lower-division competition, as it walloped Wake 52-0. USC’s...

The College Football Czar Week 3 Week two in review: The College Football Czar stumbled to a 12-9 finish after dropping three one-point games on Saturday afternoon. For the season, his record stands at 32-16, for a .667 winning percentage. Four ranked teams were upset over the course of the day, most notably #8 Arkansas, which was toppled by the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks in overtime. Almost as shocking was #13 Wisconsin falling to Oregon State, 10-7, which resulted in the firing of Badgers’ offensive line coach Mike Markuson. That OSU-Wisconsin result was one of three home victories for Pac 12 teams...