Free Republic

No matter how cynical I become, I consistently find my sense of reality trailing the march of reality. It is increasingly difficult to avoid falling behind the Cynicism Curve. On this week’s Energy Realities Podcast, which I posted here earlier on Monday, Tammy Nemeth and Irina Slav, in their usual very perceptive way, raised the question of why we so often see the public revolting against these Green New Deal-style policies, yet the policies never seem to be scaled back or rescinded in any real way. This discussion starts about 3 minutes into the podcast. When Irina threw the question...

Amid the dueling claims and information chaos in the wake of Election Day 2020, we’re seeing the consequence of the loss of faith in our basic institutions by at least half of the American public. These Americans have seen stark, specific examples in recent years of how justice is not equally applied. They have watched as some federal agents and officials of the intelligence community, who should be helping to protect us and to uphold the laws, instead have embarked upon propaganda campaigns and operations that involved committing shocking violations and potential crimes, such as conducting illegal spying, filing improper...

... That is the ultimate statement of political cynicism. What Reid is saying — if you consider the comments to Bash last year and those to Terris recently — is that the ends justify the means in all cases. It doesn't really matter if what he said about Romney's taxes is wrong. All that matters is that Romney lost. That Romney lost is justification enough for Reid to have made the false allegation. ...

Americans are cynical about Congress.  Approval ratings are in the basement at 15.2 percent according to RealClearPolitics. We see congress like a bad TV show being acted before our eyes, with the real purpose to only sell us one more show to watch.  It’s like the fake freak shows at county fairs, or the ring toss at the carnival midway where the barker just wants you to spend another few bucks to win a tiny cheap stuffed animal, but behind the scenes he scorns you over a beer and a Marlboro. The only difference between that carny and the congressman...

To understand the lack of enthusiasm most Americans feel about the midterm elections, it’s important to recognize a vital distinction between government and community.... Despite all the promises made by politicians, few voters really expect a meaningful change in their own life based upon whether one politician beats another in a particular election. People are generally happier when their team wins and sadder when it loses, but most then go on with life as they did before the votes were counted. More than anything else, the lack of connection between election results and reality explains the low turnout in American...

President Barack Obama says disquiet and a sense of frustration in the country are fueling cynicism about government that could hurt Democratic turnout in the November elections. In a sober political assessment, Obama tells Democratic donors he feels a sense of urgency about the election and needs the Senate to remain Democratic. Republicans have a chance to win control of the Senate this year. The president says that when Democrats get discouraged, they don’t vote. …

The heiress and the harpist are running for mayor of Paris. The race is intriguing only because both candidates are women. The race is all about image, and the voters know it. "Don't worry," says a passer-by overhearing the conversation. "It'll never happen."" What will never happen is the promise of the harpist, a former Sarkozy minister, to convert ghost metro stations into swimming pools for the homeless. Kosciusko-Morizet earned her nickname of the harpist ever since being photographed for Paris Match lounging in an evening gown in a forest next to a harp "like some posh wood nymph." Vying...

President Obama ran against cynicism — and defined his presidency by it. By Jonah Goldberg ‘My rival in this race,” President Obama announced early in 2007, “is not other candidates. It’s cynicism.” Sadly, it’s now evident cynicism won. In a much-hyped speech at Knox College on Wednesday, Obama sought to pivot back to the economy — as the journalistic cliché goes — and shape the issue environment for the 2014 congressional elections.

People no longer trust their government, their media or much of anything else to do the right thing. That lack of confidence, which has accelerated in the last decade or so, is a major (and often overlooked) factor in the current political morass in which the country finds itself — deeply divided along partisan lines without anything even close to objective force able to referee us through the mess. The numbers are stark. In a Gallup poll released earlier this month, only three out of 16 institutions — the military, small business and the police — attracted majority support when...

Welcome to the post-cynicism presidency. In the good old days — pre-2008 — we voters knew politicians were motivated by self-interest. But we felt entitled to at least the pretense that their political positions were bold advocacy on behalf of the public good. So you elect Deval “I won’t raise gas taxes or tolls” Patrick the politician, and you get a “The budget was worse than I thought” governor. But President Barack Obama, who promised to be a transformative political figure, has pushed past that old paradigm completely. How can a candidate be “cynical” when he admits his shameless self-interest...

Ultimately, it is all my fault, my failure, my fall. I failed to persuade, failed to seduce, failed to sell. (I hate the concept of 'selling oneself', so prevalent in our culture, but it is what it is.) And it's my core that is responsible. My unchangeable core. It was my core that was rejected, despised, spat upon, accused, laid off from my job, told "I cannot love you". No Prozac, no therapy can change my core, they can only dull my senses, hypnotize me into accepting despair. I know what I'm talking about, the world has sent me a...

[SNIP] Born in 1533, Montaigne lived through the massacres and mayhem of France’s Wars of Religion. The child of a wealthy Catholic father (his grandfather made a fortune in the herring trade) and a wealthy Jewish mother, he grew up as a skeptical Catholic with Protestants as companions and associates. Surveying the barbaric excesses of his time, he came to believe that the state was mostly an institution in which pride and ambition contested for power – yet, nevertheless, enforced an elemental discipline. It was this discipline alone that separated mankind from savage butchery. [SNIP] When evil and barbaric acts...

An extradition treaty signed this week between the Netherlands and Peru could open the door for Joran Van der Sloot to return to his native country if convicted in the death of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman. A spokesman with Peru's foreign ministry, Gonzalo Portals Zubiate, said Friday that the treaty -- which allows some Dutch nationals sentenced to time in Peru to serve their sentences in Europe, with the inverse for Peruvians convicted in Holland -- has nothing to do with Van der Sloot, specifically. Still, the suspect's attorney acknowledged it could affect him... Van der Sloot is being held...

Call it an above-the-fray strategy. On hot issues that Democrats and Republicans have found cause to fret about — from spending reductions to state labor disputes — President Barack Obama is keeping a low profile. Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia want him more publicly engaged in budget negotiations in Congress while others want him to denounce Republican proposed program cuts. Democrats like Rep. Keith Ellison want him to go to Wisconsin to stand in solidarity with public unions fighting to retain their bargaining rights. Some lawmakers in both parties want him to take a greater lead against...

Today the United States finds itself adrift on a sea of uncertainty; its economy floundering under the weight of oppressive debt and mismanagement, its status in world affairs at its lowest ebb since the beginning of the 20th Century and its citizens openly questioning the future. At such a critical time the country has as its President a man unable or qualified to lead. Barack Obama is a man without a core, leaving the ship of state without a rudder in the management of foreign affairs and domestic policy which have spun dangerously out of control over the past two...

Guess who's been channeling Adam Smith: President Obama -- about as an unlikely a convert to free-market economics as has ever sat in the Oval Office. And yet, there he was yesterday morning, sitting down with 20 of the most powerful captains of commerce in America: "I want to dispel any notion we want to inhibit your success," Obama said. "We want to be boosters, because when you do well, America does well." Hey, good for him. If he means it. For if he's truly sincere about bolstering -- instead of slowly strangling -- business, it's great news for the...

The MSM continues to fawn over this outrage at Ground Zero to show us common folk how “progressive” they are…Via Pundit Press:NBC and its affiliates have been trounced in ratings over the last several years. With stations like MSNBC under their belt and liberals such as Matt Lauer and Keith Olbermann hosting programs, NBC is clearly disconnected with the average American. Another clear sign of their mismanagement: naming Sharif El-Gamal, developer of the Ground Zero Mosque, one of their “People of the Year.” In an interview set to air on Thanksgiving Day, Matt Lauer sat down with El-Gamal and discussed...

Key White House allies are dramatically shifting their attempts to defend health care legislation, abandoning claims that it will reduce costs and deficit, and instead stressing a promise to "improve it." The messaging shift was circulated this afternoon on a conference call and PowerPoint presentation organized by FamiliesUSA -- one of the central groups in the push for the initial legislation. The call was led by a staffer for the Herndon Alliance, which includes leading labor groups and other health care allies. It was based on polling from three top Democratic pollsters, John Anzalone, Celinda Lake, and Stan Greenberg. The...

Given the choice between retaining power in the short term or doing what's right for America, which would you choose? Most Americans, I believe, would be willing to sacrifice a great deal for their country, and this willingness to sacrifice has always been the great pillar of American democracy. Unfortunately, there is no fondness for sacrifice in Washington these days, especially among the Democratic leadership and its supporters. The irresponsibility of the left is on display daily as one piece of self-serving legislation follows another. The latest example comes in the form of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes...

Almost a year has passed since January 20, 2009 -- when the waters of the ocean no longer rose and America began to heal from the depredations of Republicans. Barack Obama has been our president for that long, and the people have started to wise up. The light that shines on Barack Obama as president has reflected back an image that bears very little similarity to the iconic visage that floated above us all in 2008. Why has Barack Obama betrayed so many allies, broken so many promises, thrown so many pledges and people under the bus? One simple aphorism...