Daniel Greenfield

Socialism’s Greatest Lie: Government Can Give You Everything for Free

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is a lobby firm for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.Socialism's greatest lie is that it promises the people something for nothing, services and programs of all kind that will either be "free" or more affordable than the free market variety. But just like the ads promising you a free iPod or a chance to make millions from home while you yawn, socialism is not something for nothing, instead more often it's nothing for something. The idea that the government will take care of you is appealing, entire nanny states have been built on that proposition. But the government can't take care of you, it can't even pay its own bills without you. It can't run a television station, a toll bridge or even an off track betting service, or any venture that in private hands would be profitable, without using taxpayer funds to prop it up. A legitimate enterprise never needs to fool its customers into thinking that they will receive something for nothing. It is only the scammers that need to do that.

Behind the Culture of Terrorism Denial

The most common form of denial in the free world today is terrorism denial. Terrorism denial can range from its most extreme manifestations which claim that America, Israel, etc are the "real terrorists" or 9/11 Trutherism, which is a more conspiracy minded variation on the same theme, to more moderate forms of terrorism denial, that believe Islam is a religion of peace, think terrorism only means a few extremists hiding in a cave somewhere, and lone terrorist attacks are the product of mental illness.

A New Decade and the Mutants of Gaza

Last decade it was the first year of a new millennium, and now it's the first year of a new decade. It is a decade that begins in the shadow of terrorism, in the shadow of Islam. Nidal Malik Hasan's killing spree and Umar's attempted attack on Northwest 253 mark an uptick in domestic terrorism, even as the suicide bombing struck CIA agents in Afghanistan to showcase one of the worst attacks on the US in Afghanistan.

Obama’s Only Real Accomplishment

Let's get it straight, behind all the hubbub and noise, the international trips and summits, the TV specials and constant addresses to the nation and any other nation that would let him in, the huge spending plans and the photoshoots-- Barack Hussein Obama has accomplished only one thing in his first year in office.

Israel, State and Nation

It is difficult to comprehend the extent to which the left has inserted appeasement into the culture and the educational system of the State of Israel. From the youngest ages children are taught to pursue appeasement dressed up as peace, with the same enthusiasm and verve that Palestinian Arab children are taught to pursue Jihad.

What the Terrorists are Truly Afraid of

If the passengers of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 survived their flight to return home to their families, like veterans returning home from war they are a reminder of all those who did not survive, and all those who will not survive in a more successful attack.

Let My Terrorists Go

For six years the burning cause of the American left was the fate of the captured terrorists being held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Civil rights lawyers, pundits and Democratic congressmen joined voices to denounce  military tribunals, detention of captured terrorists without access to their ACLU lawyers and of course that unholy terror of MSNBC commentators, waterboarding. And they got their way.

Obama’s Real Report Card

As Obama's first year in office approaches, his long calendar of corruption and failure flutters its windblown leaves into the abyss of the past. Let us take a brief look back at the full unmitigated ugliness of the Sham in Chief's first year in office... for a proper report card.

Christmas in Terrorland

In the media's Middle Eastern coverage it wouldn't be Christmas without the usual seasonal run of stories on how Bethlehem's Christians are suffering because of Israel. These stories will occasionally admit that the number of Christians dropped drastically under the Palestinian Authority, not under Israeli rule, but this doesn't stop them from running the usual smear campaign.

How the West Rejuvenated Pan-Islamism and the Global Jihad

The seeming suddenness with which Islamic terrorism went from a problem happening "out there" in the hinterlands to a problem happening across the street can be credited as much to the Islamists themselves, as to their enablers. What the backwardness of the Muslim world and the collapse of its empires of conquered regions into colonies themselves, ruled over by European powers achieved to break down Pan-Islamism, seemingly for good, was swiftly undone. And it was undone by the fact that virtually every major power in the 20th century fostered Pan-Islamism as a tool against its enemies.

So You Say You Want a Health Care Revolution

Beginning with a pledge to make health care more accessible to millions of Americans, Obama and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill have instead made millions of Americans into serfs of the insurance companies who paid for their Senate seats. Not only did Obama predictably dump on seniors, a demographic that didn't vote for him, but he managed to stab the same youth vote that got him to where he is today in the back by forcing them to buy health insurance in order to subsidize his social welfare programs.

Tax Cuts not Tax Hikes; How Israel Beat the Recession

While most of the news narrative about Israel focuses on its daily struggles against terrorism, a more subtler international controversy is brewing as Prime Minister Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz continue to insist on enacting corporate tax reform, cutting corporate and high income bracket taxes, despite opposition from domestic sources and the International Monetary Fund.

What We Mean When We Talk About Reforming Islam

There is of course a great deal of talk about reforming Islam these days, and just about anyone from Tariq Ramadan to the Saudi King, to people who actually see what is wrong with Islam and want to reform it, can legitimately claim the title of the reformer of Islam. But that is because the question of what exactly "Reforming Islam" means remains open.

Red Lights, Green Lights and the Inefficiency of Energy Efficiency

With snowstorms in the air, cities that decided to "go green" by switching from incandescent to LED traffic lights are discovering that their new "green" traffic lights don't melt snow through waste heat. The alternative requires sending crews out to actually clean off the LED traffic lights, a single such outing costs more energy and money than LED traffic lights can possibly save in a year.

The Long March to ObamaCare and Copenhagen

As Obama continues the long march to ObamaCare and Copenhagen, both have come to resemble a painful death march that is bringing, what one can only call the extreme left and the left into conflict with each other. Howard Dean and the Democratic promoters of the Public Option have this in common with the street protesters in Copenhagen, in that they are unwilling to settle for anything less than the extreme.

Obama and the Religion of Popular Culture

It is a self-evident truth that religion may seem to be on the decline, but is always present within a society and a culture in one form or another. Secularization is not the decline of religion, but rather the decline of spiritual religion in favor of cultural religion that is simply background noise. Just as atheism, though it may lack a creator figure, forms of a belief system in a particular worldview and an accompanying set of values, so too religion is very much present in a secularized society. It is simply not religion as we understand it anymore, it is popular culture, and Obama is its key messianic figure.

Israel’s False Dream of Peace

During the time of Chanukah, a holiday inspired by the resistance of a band of brothers to the tyranny of Aniochus IV of the Seleucid Empire, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is instead confronting the consequences of buckling under to Obama's tyranny by imposing a building freeze on hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria.

Murder by Lawfare - How Liberal Lawsuits are Taking American Lives

The thirteen US soldiers murdered at Fort Hood were killed by the bullets fired by Malik Nidal Hassan, but there were those who helped Nassan fire his bullets, who did everything but hold his gun and pull the trigger for him. The initial FBI review has found that the Justice Department guidelines for opening a criminal investigation were too high, in turn investigators have said that it now requires a very high standard of evidence in order to convict a terrorist plotter.

The Post-Human Left Unleashes Species Warfare at Copenhagen

A century ago protesters on the streets of a European city might have been marching to call attention to the plight of the poor living in slums on those same streets. Today protesters are rioting in the streets of Copenhagen, not on behalf of their fellow human beings, but for the rights of the ant, the polar bear and the crocodile. The rhetoric has not changed very much, but the core worldview has, embracing a collectivism that no longer has anything human in it.

Chanukah and the One Light Above

For the eight days of Chanukah, it is common to see a candelabra with eight lights and one light above it, shining here and there, in the windows of stores and hallways, in people’s homes and even on intersections. Some are filled with oil, while others are topped with candles. Some tower high overhead and some are child sized. But all have eight lights and one above it, and all commemorate the same occasion.