All posts by Flyoverpen

Pence was right!

On January 6, 2021, in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, Vice President Mike Pence, in his role as presiding officer of a joint session, counted the electoral college votes for President, just as his predecessors had done for every presidential election since the founding of the republic.  Sounds routine enough, doesn’t it?

Not quite.

For that act, Mike Pence became the most hated man in America among Trump supporters.  Millions of Americans were left fuming at Pence for squandering the golden opportunity to flip what they were certain was a Democrat-rigged election.

Continue reading Pence was right!

SCOTUS Succession: Resolved

The death of J. Antonin Scalia has brought about the predictable seismic political upheaval. However, all this Sturm und Drang is totally unnecessary.

There is one way, and one way only, to put an end, once and for all, to this preposterous political theater we’re forced to endure to every time an opening occurs on the SCOTUS: repudiate and abrogate the doctrine of judicial despotism. Continue reading SCOTUS Succession: Resolved

Ban the Mexican Flag

One New York [Times] minute after the arrest of accused massacrist Dylann Roof, baying, braying leftists were demanding that the Confederate flag be banned; after all, Roof was seen on his website proudly holding such a flag, wasn’t he? So every establishment-media news reader made sure we got to witness that benighted banner being dragged down from the pole from which it flew in Charleston, SC—urged and cheered by Republican Governor Nikki Haley. No, more, the very pole from which it waved had to be obliterated. Continue reading Ban the Mexican Flag

All Cops are Liars, Liars! (& Evil)

facebook_share_wporgMy first reaction to the video of Walter Scott being shot by police officer Michael Slager was, like everybody else’s, “what a horrifying example of law enforcement malpractice.”

But soon the contrarian conservatarian skeptic in me started wondering how long it would take for the left lackey media to start spinning and twisting this incident and to begin pushing one of their favorite “social justice” theorems: police+minority=evil? As it turned out, it didn’t take long at all. Continue reading All Cops are Liars, Liars! (& Evil)

Scott Walker & the Bait Question

facebook_share_wporgProbably the most famous bait question of all time is: Are you still beating your wife? It’s the perfect template: any answer you give is going to damn you. But the “bait” in this question is obvious enough that most people chortle immediately the first time they hear it.

Left-lackey media hacks love their bait questions, but they’re much more cunning and duplicitous in how they formulate them. Continue reading Scott Walker & the Bait Question

Government “Shutdown” Déjà Vu

facebook_share_wporgFourteen months ago, I publicly asked, in all seriousness, the question, “What government shutdown?” The public response to my question—and my disambiguation of “shutdown”—since then: silence. So now I have another question: Why are Republicans, even conservatives, so incorrigibly willing, sometimes it seems even eager, to truckle to word choices foisted on them by the Democrat left? Continue reading Government “Shutdown” Déjà Vu

Questions for Global Warmists

First of all, I am not a climatologist, a meteorologist, a chemist or physicist, a geologist, not a scientist of any kind.  As a matter of fact I have been a maker of expensive musical instruments for the past forty years.  So if you’re looking to hear from an “expert,” stop here; don’t bother reading on.

On the other hand, if you’re a reasonably intelligent citizen and, like me, an inveterate skeptic, you should find the following argument unusual, perhaps even unique.  Continue reading Questions for Global Warmists

What Government Shutdown?

FlyoverpenHow easy it is for the Democrat left to fool Republicans, even some conservatives, by foisting their word choices on everybody.  A conspicuous example of this is the term “government shutdown.”

The words “government shutdown” conjure up a vision of a Federal government in its entirety falling into a black hole for who knows how long.  Oh, what a cataclysm!   The nation, the world will collapse into total meltdown!  Oh! Oh! Oh!

Continue reading What Government Shutdown?

After Zimmerman

Shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December 2012, I took to these pages to chide the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre gently for his proposal to install an armed policeman in every school.  Instead I suggested it would be more effective to permit armed teachers and school personnel, carefully screened and trained, to fulfill this role.   The article outlined three principles to optimize the deterrent value of a societal gun presence: pervasiveness, anonymity and publicity.

The article also pointed out (hat-tip John Lott) that all citizens, not just those who are armed, benefit from the crime deterrence created by law-abiding gun owners.  This got me thinking about my own status.  Continue reading After Zimmerman