Salesmen

Good salesmen don't tell you how much you're going to spend, but how much you're going to save. Then they sell you their product, whether you can afford it or not.

That's one reason why I get nervous when the Blue-Dog Democrats tell me we're going to save $100 million on Obamacare. Sure, but what's it going to cost? And I'm not just asking about dollars, but also about sense.

Weather Wimps

As the coolest July on record wraps up, Chicagoans are complaining that the weather isn't summerlike enough. If it were hot and humid as usual, we'd complain about that. The fact is, we love to complain about the weather, of whatever kind-and label as a wimp anyone else who complains.

Teaching Moment

Now President Obama, in a classic CYA move, has invited Sgt. Crowley and Prof. Gates over for a beer at the White House. Obama says it will be a "teaching moment." Actually, if I were Crowley, having done nothing wrong, I'd politely decline to be used politically like this, absent a public apology from both blowhards. The only way I'd show up for this "teaching moment" is if I knew Obama and Gates would be sitting at their desks, pencils sharpened, ready to take notes.

Kid Tasks

Keeping kids on task is a task in itself.

Obamacare on Life Support

Obamacare appears to be on life support. Let's not wait around to find out if it will pull through. Instead, let's pull the plug now. Yes, the health care system needs to be reformed, but not the by the statist approach being proposed. Let's give more freedom, flexibility, and choice.

RSCs

The punishment for the Cambridge police officer who had the temerity to arrest a belligerant Henry Louis Gates might be having to sit through his own racial sensitivity classes.

HT: Christine

Transferrable Skills

At some point, transferrable skills have to transfer.

First Things First

When raising kids, character is the goal, but obedience is a good start.

The Whale

I heard a Republican say a government takeover of health care may be the president's Waterloo. I was thinking that instead it may be his whale, with Barack Obama as Captain Ahab. Americans are slowly waking up to how much all of our president's schemes will cost, and they are starting to feel a little seasick.

Alienated

Forty years ago today, we took one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind (and I was "there," thanks to Walter Cronkite, who did not quite live to see this day). Yet after we took this giant leap our problems didn't go away: stagflation, budget deficits, educational deficits, terrorism, war, declining morals. Yes, much changed when we put men on the moon, but even more didn't. We can put people on a barren satellite hurtling along a quarter of a million miles away. But we cannot change the human heart, which in some ways remains more alien than the harshest lunar landscape.

Reality Check

We'll be taking our kids to the funeral of a family friend today, someone who lived a long, interesting, and faithful life. This is probably the most important thing we will do with them this summer. It is incumbent upon the living to stop their busy schedules and honor those who have died and moved on to the next world. As the Book of Proverbs says, better the house of mourning than the house of feasting. Sometimes we get so caught up in our daily pursuits that we forget where this whole thing is headed. A funeral is a great reality check.

Perfectionist

If I'm such a perfectionist, why don't the things I do ever come out perfect?

Tom Terrific

An aging Tom Watson leading the British Open? Reminds me of Greg Norman, the Phil Mickelson of his era, leading in last year's tourney before imploding in the last round. Come to think of it, Watson won a lot more majors than did Norman, with fewer physical gifts. So maybe this old man has a chance.

Self Disregard

Memo to self: Take your eyes off of you and open your ears to someone else.

Sin Watch

News item: In an apparent robbery, several men enter the Florida home of a well-known couple who have adopted 12 special-needs children and murder the mom and dad in cold blood. Some of the children are forced to watch.

News item: A Chicago-area cemetery becomes a crime scene when the operators are accused of digging up hundreds of remains in order to sell more burial plots. Family members of the deceased are in consternation as they try to find out the condition and location of their loved ones.

Comment: Anyone who doesn't believe in original sin hasn't been paying attention.

Chicago Guns

News item: Over the weekend, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daily's bodyguard held a prison escapee at gunpoint near the mayor's summer home in Michigan until the police could pick him up.

Comment: This is the same Mayor Daily who presides over one of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Why is it OK for the mayor of Chicago to protect himself with a gun, but illegal for the citizens of Chicago to do likewise?

Stimulus Double-Talk

Joe Biden says the administration miscalculated how bad the economy was. Barack Obama says the $787 billion "stimulus" plan is working as expected. Let's try to take them both at their word. This means the administration is both incompetent and uncaring.

Ghana?

Barack Obama has continuing crises in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and North Korea. And he chooses to go to Ghana? Other than to play to voters back home, I just don't get it. Ghana can wait.

Diamond in the Sky

The fireworks ain't over 'til Neil Diamond sings.

A Parable for Our Time

Yesterday, on Independence Day in the heart of America, my family and I watched with pride our city's annual Fourth of July parade. One of the organizations marching by passed out small American flags for the kids to wave. Along the tiny wooden flagpole were printed just three words:

"Made in China."

Palin's (Lack of) Substance

It's hard to see Sarah Palin's resignation as a good move for her politically. Yes, she may now have time to study up and to do fund raising for other Republicans. But it would be nice to run on a full record of accomplishment, to add some substance to her undeniable style.

And wasn't one of the key criticisms of Barack Obama the fact that he hadn't actually accomplished anything? If she somehow ends up running against him in 2012, it is he who will have the edge in experience-and don't think he won't trumpet this to the voters.

Spend

With the unemployment rate zooming toward 10 percent and belt-tightening occurring all across the country, the Democrats' key response can be summarized in one word: spend. What's wrong with this picture? Now comes word that as banks are trying to return taxpayer-provided TARP money ASAP, the Democrats are looking at the money not as a way to pay down some of this avalanche of new debt, but as a new spending windfall. If the Democrats aren't stopped, we'll be bankrupt as a nation.

Afghanistan

As the Marines and some Afghan troops move to reestablish control in Afghanistan, I confess to a feeling of foreboding. The Left has complained for years that Iraq is a quagmire, even as we begin to turn the country over to a competent government. It's hard to see how we turn Afghanistan back over to its people-but I hope we can. Perhaps that will happen after we leave Germany or Korea.

Clown at the Party

Al Franken, the unfunny comedian and loud-mouthed liberal, has been declared the winner of the disputed Minnesota Senate seat. Democrats, after picking up their coveted 60th seat in "the world's greatest deliberative body," may yet rue this "victory." It's hard to see how this clown can improve the public's perception of the party.