Unchecked, government social programs are a security threat because they weaken the ultimate line of defense: the free-born citizen whose responsibilities are not subcontracted to the government.

The senator's actions in the hours and days after emerging from that pond tell us something ugly about Kennedy the man. That he got away with it tell us something ugly about American public life.

If you took every single penny that Warren Buffett has, it'd pay for 4-1/2 days of the US government. This tax-the-rich won't work. The problem here is the government is way bigger than even the capacity of the rich to sustain it. The Buffett Rule would raise $3.2 billion a year, and take 514 years just to pay off Obama's 2011 budget deficit.

Appeasement is a vote to live in the present tense, to hold the comforts of the moment.

The most basic of conservative principles is that if you reward bad behavior you get more of it.

Once you accept you're a child in the government nursery, why shouldn't Nanny tell you what to do?

But, once you get a taste for shutting people up, it's hard to stop. Why bother winning the debate when it's easier to close it down?