Tony Blankley channels Christopher Lasch

I think he might be onto something:

The Obama presidency is both the high watermark, and the beginning of the end, for elite multicultural materialism in America.

A question for Martin O'Malley

When you talk about working families, who are you leaving out?

If he were honest about it, O'Malley's answer would be "no one."

Almost everyone who hears these words thinks O'Malley is talking about their family. In my view, the phrase is meaningless. Every time I hear it, I think the speaker is trying to pull something over on me.

Check out the Lutherville-Timonium Patch

The newest media player in the greater BaltoNorth area.

They're covering local politics, high school sports and so on, giving some much-needed competition to the Towson Times. I've heard good things about them, but have a concern already about the slant of their political coverage.

Here's a nice article by Scott Lowe about Dulaney High School's cross country team and their annual Barnhart Invitational race. (As comparison, here's Tom Worgo's Towson Times piece.)

On the other hand, it seems like ninety percent of the political column-inches so far by Nick DiMarco, Matt Cruz and Doug Donovan are about Democrats.

C'mon guys.

L/T is one of the most Republican areas in Maryland. If you're going to write a puff piece about Democratic campaigns, try to give at least a semblance of balance and publish some pictures of Republicans too.

UPDATE: I missed Nayana Davis's article about Todd Huff's victory over Bryan McIntire. Plenty of column inches there, but the tenor of the article is clearly, if mildly, anti-Republican:

• The story devotes several early paragraphs to miscommunication between the candidates regarding McIntire's concession.
• In addition, the story quotes a Republican candidate swearing. Democrats use expletives too. But somehow I don't expect to see their swears surrounded by quote marks in a Patch story anytime soon.

Landmark environmental legislation passed during Republican administrations

Here's what's happened under the GOP* in the last half-century:

1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
1970 Creation of EPA
1970 Clean Air Act extension
1972 Federal Water Pollution Control amendments to the Clean Water Act
1974 Safe Drinking Water Act
1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
1986 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
1990 Clean Air Act Amendments

In comparison, the list of major environmental legislation passed during Democratic administrations is short and unimpressive.

The lesson for environmentalists:

if you want to pass major environmental legislation, your odds are poor under Democrats and much much better under Republicans

*Don't get me wrong. I acknowledge that Democrats played key roles -- many many key roles -- in conceiving these laws and shepherding them through Congress.

Photo source: World in My View

6 reasons why Maryland Democrats and Martin O'Malley are overrated on the environment

1. The Maryland League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is wildly biased.
2. Democrats often take environmentalists for granted.
3. BayStat doesn’t have many environmental stats.
4. Neither did CityStat.
5. Democrats like to create complex programs which need enforcement resources that don’t exist.
6. The environmental agenda of Democrats tends to be a "hero sandwich of good intentions." But their results are often mediocre-to-poor.

7 reasons why environmentalists should vote Republican

1. Research, analysis and reporting done by green Democrats is often shallow and misleading.
2. Republicans are more skeptical of the environmentalist agenda. Democrats often accept it as an article of faith.
3. Republicans are less likely to impose technology mandates because they know government has a terrible track record.
4. Republicans look more closely at the effects of environmental legislation on business and the economy.
5. A significant majority of major environmental legislation since WWII was passed during Republican administrations.
6. Republicans tend to focus on results. Democrats tend to focus on effort and good intentions.
7. Republicans push harder for free market solutions that cost less and accomplish more.

The most pro-black thing we can do: fight a white-hot "war on the War on Drugs"

John McWhorter, writing for Root:

The War on Drugs destroys black families. ...

The War on Drugs discourages young black men from seeking legal employment. ...

The War on Drugs lends a badge of honor to spending time in prison. ...

What will turn black America around for good is not more theatrical marches but the elimination of a policy that prevents too many people from doing their best.

After welfare reform in 1996, countless people thought that black women would wind up shivering on sidewalk grates. They underestimated the basic human resilience of black people.

In the same way, if the War on Drugs is ended, the same people will assume that young black men will wander about jobless and starving. They will not, because they are human beings with basic resilience and survival instincts as well. ...

Meanwhile, studies suggest that addiction rates do not rise when anti-drug policies are pulled back

Read the whole thing. John McWhorter rocks.

Khan Academy: will Bill Gates's favorite teacher "shake the foundations" of public education?

I think he probably will.

From Chicago Boyz

The existence of Khan Academy should force us to question everything about how we will educate the coming generations of Americans.

Here's the CNN / Fortune article about Bill Gates & Sal Khan.

And here's Khan's wonderfully inspirational speech given at one of Mark Hurst's recent GEL conferences. It explains who he is, why he started the academy, and why his simple approach is so breathtakingly effective.

Democratic state senator Ulyssses Currie indicted for fraud and bribery

I saw Senator Currie run some committee meetings in Annapolis a few years ago. At the time I was struck by his air. You could almost see his sense of entitlement radiating from every pore.

From Annie Linskey's article today in the Sun:

prosecutors allege that Currie accepted payments from Shoppers totaling $245,816 in exchange for helping the company navigate state bureaucracy from 2003 to 2008.

To track his favors, Currie created a document titled "Accomplishments on Behalf of Shoppers," in which he listed 12 state and legislative hurdles he had removed to benefit the company, according to the indictment.

Read the whole thing.

As always seems to happen in cases like this, mistakes were made!

They noted that Currie did not report his work for Shoppers on his state ethics forms. Kelberman described the lack of disclosure as "mistakes" that were "not intentional."

In Senator Currie's world, it would seem that financial accountability is only for the little people:

Currie has been beset by other problems. He replaced his longtime campaign treasurer after filing a financial disclosure Aug. 10 which showed that $187,000 had been drained from the account with no explanation for how it was spent.

UPDATE: this is just one more reason to vote Republican this November. The quality of Republican candidates is particularly strong in Baltimore County this year (and accross Maryland) when compared to previous years. If you're an Independent or even a Democrat, please look carefully at the GOP candidates in your district.

And consider voting for them.

If you do, perhaps one day I'll realize my dream of living in an honest-to-goodness two-party state.