Michael R. Shannon

Seattle's Money Laundering Poorly Disguises Socialism

Seattle continues to be a sinkhole of economic illiteracy. Some cities put fluoride in the water, while Seattle evidently sprinkles in a little socialism. Michael Reagan has written here about the damaging effects of the politically-imposed $15 per hour minimum wage.

Democrats Reassure Perpetrators Instead of Victims of San Bernadino

In the Three Monkeys tradition characterizing Obama's policy on Islamic terrorism (See No, Hear No & Speak No Evil) Rep. Don Beyer (D-Dhimmi) invited other Democrats to join him in visiting the Virginia mosque that hosted of two of the 9/11 attackers in a "show of solidarity with American Muslims."

Why It’s Cheaper to Ask Dr. Seuss Why Babies Won’t Eat

I do not like food with a sneeze. I do not like licks on my cheese. I do not like already chewed. I do not like tests on my food. I would not eat them for a guest. I would not eat them in a test. I would not eat them by the gram. I would not eat them Uncle Sam!

(With apologies and thanks to Dr. Seuss)

Let's Rein In Out–of–Control Gun Control Advocates

Gun control is a powder keg of an issue anyway, but selecting an individual as spokesman that reasonable people agree should never be allowed to own a gun, only makes the effort more prone to misfire.

San Francisco Too Expensive for Socialists to Live There

Leftists have been so successful at turning San Francisco into a “social justice” paradise that it’s getting harder for the rank–and–file cultural socialist to afford to live there. Statists who are already residents are being squeezed by higher property taxes and rising rent, while lefties who make their own Hajj to Bagdad–on–the–Bay and want to remain in the city can’t afford to buy or rent.

Robot Cars: The Return of the Sunday Driver

Perceptive conservatives have long been suspicious of ‘mass transit’ because of the term’s Karl Marxian connotations. For the left that’s a selling point because wedging the masses into mass transit allows ‘experts’ to decide where we will work and where we will live. The only roadblock, so to speak, is the automobile.

Did Hillary Clinton Approve the CNBC Debate Panel?

Can someone please refresh my memory? When Donald Trump met with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to sign a loyalty pledge did anyone check to see if Priebus had signed a similar pledge to all the other candidates?

Competition Would Make ObamaCare Work

The vast majority of high–end cellphone users are blissfully unaware the $200 they pay to upgrade their phone is a heavily subsidized price. Most of us think the $200 is bad enough, but if customers were paying full retail for their newer phone the price would be in excess of $650 for a model from Apple.

Why Mr. Ed Gives Better Lifestyle Advice than the Media

Paraphrasing William F. Buckley, I’d rather take lifestyle direction from 200 randomly selected people in the phone book than follow the advice found in the 200 most prominent media outlets. Reporters are fad–conscious professionals at the expense of common sense. If they can identify a trend first, they become media experts and their journalistic prestige — if there is such a thing today — increases among their peers.

Turning the Tables on Verizon & Other Cable Buccaneers

Charles Murray’s new book — BY THE PEOPLE: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission —urges conservatives to embrace civil disobedience, but with a difference: We won’t loot CVS stores. In the face of all–pervasive government demanding we obey picayune regulations, Murray urges us to: “…withhold that compliance through systematic civil disobedience. Not for all regulations, but for the pointless, stupid and tyrannical ones.”

Kevin McCarthy, Message Wizard, Replaces Former Wizard Boehner

It is axiomatic in politics that you can’t beat someone with no one. It’s a lesson one would think House Republican conservatives are well aware of, but I’m beginning to think that is not the case. As an outsider who has been active in politics for decades, I assumed that the effort to oust John Boehner as speaker included a consensus conservative nominee that would attempt to replace him.

Donald Trump: Mane Man in the Values Den

Donald Trump--America's loveable Boor in a China Shop--was an eagerly anticipated speaker at the 2015 Values Voter Summit, a conference that brings hundreds of evangelical activists to the nation's capital. Think of Values Voter as the Christian answer to Burning Man, without the gratuitous sex, drug use and an important reversal in which the goal is to avoid burning.

EPA Discovers Water Flows Downhill

Only the Obama administration, with it’s special kind of incompetence, could turn a mine that’s been closed for 92 years into an environmental disaster today. That’s exactly what happened when the Keystone Regulators at the Environmental “Protection” Agency decided to dig into a dam holding back dangerously polluted water at the Gold King mine. According to the incomparable Paul Driessen, rather than sink a small diameter pipe into the dam to analyze the water, the EPA “…used an excavator to dig away tons of rock and debris that were blocking the entrance portal.”

The VA Declares War on Veterans

Original article at Newsmax Combat veterans are learning the hard way they may cheat death on the battlefield only to find the Grim Reaper saving a seat for them in the Veterans Administration healthcare queue.

Obama’s Unilateral Surrender Foreign Policy

It’s not always necessary for a nation to wave the white flag for its enemies to know it has surrendered. Sometimes a leak from an administration official will do just fine without requiring all the logistics of a formal surrender ceremony.

Obama Internet Giveaway May Open Pandora’s Box of Porn

President Obama has a new administration initiative, supported by tax dollars, to close the Internet pornography gap. The divide is caused by ill–gotten gains that give too many Americans fast, broadband access to the booming porn industry; while other Americans are reduced to lurking in seedy newsstands, sneaking peeks between the pages of lurid magazines and hoping the clerk doesn’t notice their free browsing.

New York City & the Powder Room Police

My father grew up in rural Texas during the 1930s. His childhood featured dirt roads, a hand-crank telephone and outhouses. Most, if not all, of the bathrooms the Shannons constructed were what is termed a "one-holer." Meaning the board that kept you from falling into a pit of (you-know-what) had a single hole carved in it, usually smack dab in the centre.

Carraway Demotion is Hope for Future TSA Accountability

You missed out on last summer’s viral social exhibitionism craze and never got around to scheduling an Ice Bucket Challenge, but you have no intention of making that mistake twice. So you’ve already started planning a Let’s Draw Mohammed contest. No need for ice this time, but there is the question of what organization will handle screening the attendees?

Rachel Dolezal’s Complexion Problem

Elizabeth Warren meet Rachel Dolezal. Or better yet, Liawatha meet Fauxprah. Talk about your sisters from another mother! One pretends to be an Indian to exploit the racial spoils system on the East Coast. While the other undergoes what Zorro & The Blue Footballs called the “race change operation” to become black and abuse that quota system on the West Coast.

Bystander Nation

For all intents and purposes the Savopoulos family were good, civic–minded residents of Washington, DC. Savvas, and his wife Amy, were active in charitable causes and contributed $51,800 to both Republican and Democrat candidates since 2006. The Daily Mail reports that even though Savopoulos was very wealthy he didn’t surround himself with bodyguards or other security and the family didn’t hesitate to open the door when someone knocked.