'This is how democracy works,' Barack Obama lectured the country before giving everyone the specifics of his expansive one-man executive overreach on immigration. If you enjoy platitudinous straw men but are turned off by open debate and constitutional order, this speech was for you.

David Harsanyi

Categorized in : Country Order Men

Aside from the occasional genocide, oppression, evil and torture, etc., it is inarguable that public policy could be implemented more rapidly in an autocracy.

David Harsanyi

etc oppression evil

Common Core, the initiative that claims to more accurately measure K-12 student knowledge in English and math, also encourages children to step up their "critical thinking."

David Harsanyi

math children thinking

Are you sick and tired of these moralizing moralizers imposing their morality on the rest of us? I know I am.

David Harsanyi

morality tired sick

Most nanny-state initiatives begin on a local level.

David Harsanyi

nannies initiative levels

Twitter's popularity and usefulness are mysteries to me.

David Harsanyi

usefulness popularity mystery

In summation, like your beloved pet rock, Twitter is useful only in your imagination.

David Harsanyi

rocks imagination pet

Throughout the Old Testament, God warns his chosen people about the perils of assimilation, shiksappeal and false gods.

David Harsanyi

peril old-testament people

I believe that the war on drugs is a tragically misplaced use of resources - an immoral venture that produces far more suffering than it alleviates.

David Harsanyi

drug war believe

Washington has a mysterious power to turn perfectly reasonable, wholesome, well-meaning human beings into equivocating crooked gasbags.

David Harsanyi

mysterious turns political

A true fascist is anyone who wants to take away my air conditioning or force me to ride a bike.

David Harsanyi

conditioning air want

Political correctness is one of the engines of nannyism. Allowing and even encouraging offensive ideas is vital for the intellectually health of a free society.

David Harsanyi

offensive political ideas

Obama acknowledges his overreach openly every time he argues that he intends to do the job of an obstinate Republican congress.

David Harsanyi

notable arguing jobs

Modern Democrats aren't the first political party to abuse power - far from it. Obama isn't the first president to abuse executive power - not by a longshot. But he has to be the first president in American history to overtly and consistently argue that he's empowered to legislate if Congress doesn't pass the laws he favors. It's an argument that's been mainstreamed by partisans and cheered on by those in media desperate to find a morsel of triumph in this presidency.

David Harsanyi

media party law

The realization that you can't predict the future -- and mold it -- could only come as a shock to an academic.

David Harsanyi

mold academic realization

Ferguson argued that British involvement in World War I was unnecessary, far too costly in lives and money for any advantage gained, and a Pyrrhic victory that in many ways contributed to the end of the Empire.

David Harsanyi

ferguson victory war

The Founding Fathers worried that some common impulse of passion might lead many to subvert the rights of the few. It's a rational fear, one that is played out endlessly.

David Harsanyi

passion rights father

Progressivism is the belief that we have too much freedom with which to make too many stupid choices.

David Harsanyi

freedom too-much choices stupid

Democracy is just a reflection of our morals and the things that we believe.

David Harsanyi

morals democracy reflection believe

My parents both defected from communist Hungary and were what most people would today call libertarian. I grew up with a general distaste for taxation and any policy that intruded on our lives.

David Harsanyi

parents policy today people

A religion without rules or God isn't sustainable.

David Harsanyi

without rules god religion