The Ridiculous and The Sublime

In deciding which one quality best describes President Obama, it would have to be a toss up between disingenuousness and hypocrisy. Kimberley Strassel spotlights both in her WSJ column today on Obama's double standard for Supreme Court justices.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124355478303064587.html#mod=todays_us_opinion

Also writing about Sonia Sotomayor there's Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol and Ann Coulter. Each of them discuss the less than empathetic attitude that Sotomayor had for Frank Ricci and 17 other New Haven firefighters when their well earned promotions were unjustly denied.

http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/05/29/sotomayor_criticize,_then_confirm

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/558lnuvu.asp

http://townhall.com/columnists/AnnCoulter/2009/05/27/i_feel_your_pain_not_theirs_yours

Another WSJ item of interest today is Stephen Moore's article ridiculing critics of the late Milton Friedman. Noting that it was the rejection of his principles that help lead to the current recession, Moore credits the free market policies Friedman advocated for the unprecedented economic progress we experienced from 1980-2005. Moore relates a particularly salient Friedman acecdote for these "government stimulus program" times.

At one of our dinners, Milton recalled traveling to an Asian country in the 1960s and visiting a worksite where a new canal was being built. He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers had shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat explained: "You don't understand. This is a jobs program." To which Milton replied: "Oh, I thought you were trying to build a canal. If it's jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124355131075164361.html#mod=todays_us_weekend_journal