Vin Suprynowicz

Many of us went through a stage when we were embarrassed even to be seen with our parents or grandparents. They were just so … uncool. Their clothes were all wrong, the cars they drove were all wrong. Compared to the parents of our much more sophisticated and stylish friends, our families seemed such insufferable clods, yahoos and yokels.

Well, they were yokels. What changed, for those of us fortunate enough to outlive the phase, was that we came to wonder why we’d been embarrassed about the earthy folk and the values and down-home communities that sustained our families and gave us birth. My grandma pronounced the word “vehicle” with a hard “h,” was known to announce she was going to “warsh the deeshes,” and committed many another assault on the English language as spoken by our urban elites, thus betraying the fact that the Bishops and Clarks had come to the hill country of Southeast Ohio a very, very long time ago, and survived even when there wasn’t much to eat but what you’d put up in Mason jars and what the dog managed to tree.

More »

Not so many decades ago, party “insiders” chose their nominees for various public offices in conventions.

Some people complained this led to “cronyism.” Sometimes it did. But while the “party bosses” in those “smoke-filled rooms” might place loyalty to them and their party’s political philosophy (sometimes boiling down to little more than “more jobs for our guys”) over brilliance and innovation, at least they knew the nominee had to be able to handle the basic requirements of the office, that total weirdness or incompetence was bound to reflect back on their gang and its continued viability.

More »

Too many topics, too little space.

Did you realize radical cleric Feisal Abdul Rauf, who wants to build a Manhattan mosque to celebrate Islam’s victory over the Great Satan on Sept. 11, 2001, is now touring the Mideast to raise money for his project … in a book tour funded by the U.S. government?

The State Department defends the five-country tour, saying Mr. Rauf is “a distinguished Muslim cleric,” The Washington Times explained in an editorial last week.

More »

Do we live in a free country, or a police state?

In a free country, police (to the extent they’re needed — more private property rights and less “public property” would vastly increase the ratio of private security guards) live under and must obey the same laws as the rest of us.

In a police state, government police enjoy special laws and protections that allow them to do things that would be considered crimes if done by the rest of us.

More »

At the so-called “Tahoe Summit” last week, our own senior U.S. senator, Unpopular Harry Reid, in between cozying up to fellow moderate Dianne Feinstein (D-San Francisco) and ignoring a call to return the lake to the Washoe Indian tribe (which will probably be able to buy it soon, anyway, the way Indian gaming is going) touted the so-called Travel Promotion Act, signed by President Obama in March, which the senator asserts will create 6,000 new jobs by drawing more foreign tourists to Lake Tahoe and elsewhere.

Under the law, “plans will be developed” to reverse a 10-year national decline in foreign tourism, the senator explained. The law is to be funded by new taxes on tourism businesses and a $10 fee assessed against each foreign visitor.

More »

In politics, symbolism is often an easier sell than substance.

So no one should be surprised that a proposal to build a Muslim mosque and community center within blocks of the former site of the World Trade Center — blown up by a gang of vicious Muslim thugs and murderers on Sept. 11, 2001 as a largely symbolic attack on the United States (if 3,000 murders can be reduced to a “symbol”) — has become a political hot-button issue.

More »

As with motherhood and apple pie, both of the major parties in Washington pay lip service to America’s proud tradition of independent small business, historically the creator of the majority of American jobs.

But just as the veil was lifted from the isolated, cocooned world in which our rulers live when a photo opportunity once took President George H.W. Bush to a supermarket — where he responded with the delight of a little boy at what appears to have been his first exposure to a bar-code price scanner — our rulers seem honestly puzzled that their actions continue to destroy the very thing they claim to want to “stimulate.”

More »

As the White House gears up to let the biggest tax hike in American history go into effect on Jan. 1, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner — a millionaire banker appointed by Barack Obama despite the fact he cheated on his own income taxes — said July 25 that allowing big tax hikes targeted at wealthy Americans is “the responsible thing to do” and will not further cripple the nation’s economic growth.

“Just letting those tax cuts that only go to 2 percent to 3 percent of Americans, the highest-earning Americans in the country, expire, I do not believe it will have a negative effect on growth,” while it would send an important message to the world about America’s commitment to fiscal austerity, Mr. Geithner said on ABC.

More »

By now most Nevada TV watchers have figured out the Harry Reid jump-cut campaign ad strategy. It would be amusing if it weren’t turning an important, nationally watched campaign that should feature a legitimate debate on the best long-term cure for the American economy into a game of video-clip “Gotcha.”

The 70-year-old, four-term senator can’t very well talk about his own popularity (37 percent, nearing “kitten abuse” territory) or his and his Democratic allies’ “accomplishments” in destroying the American economy. (Have the banks made enough loans to unqualified home buyers to please you guys, yet?)

More »

It’s been two weeks since three Las Vegas Metro cops shot and killed 38-year-old West Point graduate Erik Scott as he exited a Costco store in the upscale suburb of Summerlin on July 10.

So far, the incident has generated more questions than answers.

More »