Arnold Ahlert

Water Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Think

In a column I wrote back in July, I quoted George Orwell's immortal words regarding the power of government to alter reality: "In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense." On November 17th, the European Union revealed what ought to be considered a "watershed" moment of philosophical bankruptcy: Brussels bureaucrats banned all advertising which claims water can prevent….dehydration.

Walking along Avenue J(ew)

On Wednesday, it was reported that some vandal had sprayed a sign at the Brooklyn subway stop on Avenue J, and turned it into Avenue "Jew." Here are some of the comments left by readers. All of the grammar, syntax and spelling--or lack thereof--has been left intact:

Military Scandal, Media Blackout

Let me preface the facts of this column with two disclosures: first, I have a deep and abiding respect for the United States military. With rare exception these people are and have been some of the finest Americans who have ever lived. Currently, they are asked to put their lives on the line even as they are constrained by absurdities such as the Rules of Engagement, pipe dream counter-insurgency tactics known as "winning hearts and minds," and the political machinations of an administration more than willing to use them as pawns in a bid for re-election.

Open-Mics and Closed Minds

There's nothing like a "live mic moment" when it comes to getting the unvarnished truth. Yet it is hard to decide which part of this story is more revealing: the incident itself, or the subsequent reaction by the Fourth Estaters whose commitment to the standards of journalistic integrity — or perhaps more accurately JournO-listic integrity — seemingly never reach the bottom of an apparently bottomless barrel.

Camping Out in La-La Land

Looking back at my life immediately following college, I've come to the conclusion that, to put it in terms the OWS crowd can understand, I suffered from low self-esteem and/or never got in touch with my inner child. Armed with my diploma and the aforementioned lack of self-worth, I secured my first post-graduate job: working as a cashier and a stock clerk in a Brooklyn liquor store. Even "worse?" I didn't mind it one bit.

No Soup For You!

On Wednesday at the OWS movement, it was decided that some ninety-nine percenters are "more equal" than others. Those cooking for the group are staging a protest, because they are angry that "professional homeless people" and "ex-cons masquerading as protesters" have been eating the same free food the chefs provide to the rest of the group.

Another Howler From Harry

Any American still wondering why the economy is in the tank can stop wondering. In one magnificently revealing statement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid encapsulated everything that is wrong with having Democrats in majority control of the federal government. “The massive layoffs we’ve had in America today--of course they’re rooted in the last administration--and it’s very clear that private sector jobs are doing just fine, said Reid on the floor of the Senate Wednesday.

Bagman Tim

It's too bad the overwhelming majority of the Occupy protesters have no clue about economics. If they did, they wouldn't be anywhere else but camped out in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., where the notion "too big to fail" has just been given a dose of steroids.

Are Colleges Too Big to Fail?

By now most Americans are quite familiar with the concept "too big to fail." Yet most people assume that it is related to some large bank or corporation whose failure would lead to a cascade of economic consequences most politicians believe would be more than Americans are willing to bear.

Why aren’t they upset when their child is mugged in school?

When something is critically important it bears repeating. Sunday it was revealed that another high school in NYC essentially cooked the books to allow failing students to pass. The NY Post secured a written memo from an October 2010 meeting entitled "Panel for Academic Success" which approved a series of changes for the "school grading policy" at Washington Irving HS. Read 'em and weep:

I Stand With the ‘One Percenters’

According to the mobs occupying Wall Street and other financial centers around the nation, they represent 99% of the country. That's means out of a nationwide population of roughly 300 million people, they speak for 297 million of us. Well not us. I'll take my chances with the other 3 million, or the One Percenters if you will. And I have a solution for dealing with people like me: quarantine us.

Tim, Liz and Bev Equals Moe Larry and Curly

Remember the Three Stooges? Moe, Larry and Curly entertained a generation of kids with antics that were a combination slapstick comedy mixed with unrelenting stupidity. Most comedy today is much more "sophisticated." So where do we find today's Three Stooges? Inhabiting the government, or trying to. I present to you Exhibits A,B, and C--or if you prefer, Treasury Secretary Timothy "Moe" Geithner, Massachusetts Democrat Senate candidate Elizabeth "Larry" Warren, and North Carolina Democrat Gov. Bev "Curly" Perdue.

No Acknowledgment of Israel? No More Money

Shortly before taking the podium to address the United Nations' General Assembly last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said everything the world needs to know about where the so-called peace process is headed. Speaking to an assembly of 200 senior representatives of the Palestinian community in the United States, Abbas laid his cards on the table. "They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state," he proclaimed.

‘Jobbing’ America

Below is one section — out of 451 Sections — of the president's American Jobs Act. The internet-accessible pdf. file for this particular piece of proposed legislation totals 155 pages. Read as much as you can stand. My comments below.

Carville knows a few things about ‘crazy’

Yesterday Democrat political operative James Carville wrote a piece for CNN offering the president advice on how to get his administration back on track. That part of Carville's column is between him and the president. It was the penultimate paragraph of Carville's post I found fascinating:

Contemptible Krugman

New York times columnist Paul Krugman has always been a small man. But it took the 10th commemoration of 9/11 to reveal exactly how small. In a column entitled "Years of Shame," under the general headline "The Conscience of a Liberal," Mr. Krugman revealed exactly how compromised his leftist-addled conscience truly is.

9/11: A Hard Day for Progressives

Every year, for one day, progressives maintain a lower profile than usual. It is a day when all the multi-culti mumbo-jumbo and morally relative rot gut sound completely out of place. It is a day when America confronts two realities utterly anathema to progressives everywhere: one, genuine evil exists; and two, in the war against Islamic terrorism, one must choose sides.

The Real American Fanatics

"If a candidate for president said he believed that space aliens dwell among us, would that affect your willingness to vote for him? Personally, I might not disqualify him out of hand ... But I would certainly want to ask a few questions. Like, where does he get his information? Does he talk to the aliens? Do they have an economic plan? Yet when it comes to the religious beliefs of our would-be presidents, we are a little squeamish about probing too aggressively... I grew up believing that a priest could turn a bread wafer into the actual flesh of Christ." — Outgoing NY Times editor Bill Keller

The Billionaire Blowhard From Nebraska

One of the things I've learned in life is that talk is cheap. If you want to know what a person's all about, watch what they do, not what they say. The latest cheap talk artist is the so-called Oracle of Omaha, aka Mr. Warren Buffett. He's the guy who, in a recent New York Times editorial, talked the talk about the super-rich not paying their fair share of taxes. Walking the walk? The Buff-meister's most recent move was one hundred and eighty degrees out of phase with his mouth.

The Five Stages of (Progressive) Grief

There are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. When one superimposes this psychological structure on the progressive movement in general, and the black American progressive community in particular, it becomes far easier to understand the tremendous amount of animus directed at their favorite trash-ees, the Tea Party movement. That animus was highlighted by the latest Democrat to embrace the "politics of civility" demanded by progressives in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords tragedy. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) is another Democrat who apparently didn't get the memo. "Let us all remember who the real enemy is," Wilson huffed at a Miami town hall meeting. "The real enemy is the Tea Party--the Tea Party holds the Congress hostage. They have one goal in mind, and that's to make President Obama a one-term president."