Franke: Our ‘Leaders’ — Chosen but not Liked
“The government you elect is the government you deserve.” Thomas Jefferson Find someone who will speak positively about our government these days and you will have outdone the cynic Diogenes. He merely wanted to find a wise man; we are looking for a happy and contented one. Fortunately we can let the Gallup Poll do Read the full article…

The Outstater
Leadership — The Other Kind YES, WE SEEM TO HAVE fallen into chaos, stumbled off a cliff even. The recent swirl around the office of Speaker of the House — a “gyre” is the new Beltway word for it — had me rethinking a decision of a couple summers back. I had chosen to play cards with some Read the full article…

Franke: Ubiquitous Road Hazards
by Mark Franke Like nearly every other red-blooded American, I have dreamt about get-rich-quick schemes but to no avail. I wish I had been the genius who figured out that he could take free water, bottle it and then sell it at three bucks a crack. I was also too late with hula hoops, slinkies, Read the full article…

The Outstater
Obviously . . . AS C.K. CHESTERTON famously said, every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things. This is an apology to our members for continuing — perhaps monotonously — to remind them of those obvious things. But somebody has to do it. A week ago we highlighted an economist’s courageous study showing that, yes, two-parent Read the full article…

The Outstater
Cornucopian Welfare I CAN’T KNOW ENOUGH about my city’s new government grocery store, one of several proposed for areas officially designated as food “deserts.” If the facts are ever known it will serve as a bipartisan example of government folly, as good a one as any liberal could dream up and one overseen by a Republican city council. Heck, authorized Read the full article…

The Outstater
A Man for the ‘Masses’ AS ERIC HOLCOMB prepares to leave office after another summer of foreign travel ostensibly in search of jobs for us, the opinion of him has softened. It is expressed to friends this way: He is a blockhead but he is our blockhead. And as the view has become more charitable, we have had to put certain pictures out of our mind. Read the full article…

