Lessons to be learned from the ‘media circus’

November 17, 2021

I’ve been thinking a lot about the phrase “media circus” lately. I’ve heard it applied to all sorts of crime-related stories I’ve covered during my decades as a reporter. Lately, the expression cropped up during the near wall-to-wall coverage of the Gabby Petito missing person/homicide case. I also heard it applied recently to the widespread reportage on pop star Britney Spears’ fight against her father’s court-sanctioned control over her life. When uttered, those two words — “media circus” — are usually accompanied by a dramatic eye roll and a sarcastic sneer. ...

Are Democrats seeking lifeboats?

November 16, 2021

Not so long ago, President Joe Biden was being talked of as a transformative president, a second Franklin D. Roosevelt in terms of the domestic agenda he would enact. And there was substance to the claim. Early in his presidency, Biden had passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package. While his majorities in both houses of Congress were razor-thin, they proved sufficient to push through a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Clusters of Republicans backed the Biden infrastructure bill. A follow-on $3.5 trillion Build Back Better social spending bill to rival New Deal and Great Society ...

New vaccine science shows why mandates are not wise

November 6, 2021

New scientific findings in the prestigious Lancet Infectious Diseases journal blow a hole in the argument that workers need to get vaccinated to protect those around them. The findings prove the foolishness of forcing police and other public employees to get jabbed or lose their pay. And President Joe Biden should retract his order to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to compel large employers to mandate vaccines. The journal reported Thursday that COVID-19 vaccines have “minimal” impact on preventing transmission of the delta strain. Delta is the COVID strain ...

Punishing achievement is punishing everyone

November 5, 2021

Last week, Democrats settled on an area of apparent commonality: the desire to eat the rich. According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, “Senator Wyden and the Senate Finance Committee ... would impose a tax on unrealized gains on liquid assets held by extremely wealthy individuals, billionaires.” While Yellen refused to call this a “wealth tax,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had no such qualms: “We probably will have a wealth tax,” she said. This has long been a talking point for the most Marxist-leaning Democrats, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who famously proposed a 2% ...

House progressives detach from reality

November 4, 2021

Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat left-wing “squad” member in the House, attacked Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin for his opposition to the multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better Act. Manchin is “anti-Black, anti-child, anti-woman and anti-immigrant,” according to Bush because of his opposition to this megaspending welfare bill. If Bush wants to identify politicians hurting Blacks, children, women and immigrants, she needn’t go further than to look in the mirror. Bush represents Missouri’s 1st Congressional district, which includes a big chunk of St. Louis. The district is 49% ...

Let’s talk about a new kind of prison system

November 3, 2021

Show of hands: How many readers believe that the U.S. prison system truly works to rehabilitate convicts before releasing them back into society? I’m betting not many hands went up. A quick history of America’s correctional-industrial complex shows that up until the late ’60s, the goal really was to rehabilitate prisoners so they could have a better chance of success when they got out. But in the early ’70s that mindset changed, and we adopted a system of harsh mass incarceration, including extraordinarily long, no-parole sentences, even for first-time offenders. The result ...