Right to Opine

I’ve always been fascinated by our 16th President. Many good books have explored Lincoln’s towering intellect, deep wisdom, quick wit, and keen ability to work with people who opposed him. In Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever, authors Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard portray the final days of Lincoln’s life in a gripping narrative that drew me in from the first page. Approaching this seminal event in American history from a variety of viewpoints, they move between concurrent story lines in a seamless way that keeps you turning pages well into the night.

The authors draw from a number of conflicting and controversial sources, so while the finished product garnered quite a bit of criticism—primarily, it appears, from reviewers who dislike O’Reilly to begin with and couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge that the authors detail the controversies at the back of the book—it is eminently readable. You get a feeling for who the players were, where they came from, what motivated them… Compared to other books I’ve read re his assassination, Killing Lincoln comes off not as a doctoral dissertation to slog through, but as a story you just don’t want to put down.

And that’s what the authors were, um, shooting for. Give it a shot. If you’re at all interested in the subject, you’ll enjoy the book.

Boston Herald – Parents: Rule’s half-baked

There is no cure for the nanny state other than the ballot box.

Jonathan Tobin@Commentary – Mainstream Media’s Pose of Fairness is the Real Poison in American Journalism

James Bovard@WSJ – Don’t Worry (About GDP), Be Happy

Thomas Sowell – A cynical process

National Review – Occupy the Southern Poverty Law Center
Just another reason the SPLC is such a joke.

Marybeth Hicks@Townhall – When Bullying For the Gay Agenda is OK

Jonah Goldberg@Newsday –Analyzing the Republican brain

If you really want to know why conservatives want to quit throwing money down the rabbit hole that is public and “higher” education, look no further. We aren’t anti-science. We’re against the nonsense masquerading as intellectual thought that inundates modern academia.

RealClearPolitics – Matthews: “So Proud” Of Obama Addressing Troops In Afghanistan
You know a Lefty’s coming unhinged when he compares Obama to King Henry V.

Thomas Sowell@IBD – The Last Thing Unions Are Concerned About Is Free Choice For Workers

Doug Powers@MichelleMalkin – Solyndra is gone, but the toxic waste lives on

WSJ:

• Blahous and Capretta@WSJ – Blahous and Capretta: Exposing the Medicare Double Count
• Henninger – Memo to the Youth Vote

Townhall:

• Dennis Prager – November Is a Plebiscite On the American Revolution
• John Stossel – Keeping Nature Exactly as Is … Forever
• Walter E. Williams – America’s Two-Faced Liberals

Telegraph (UK) – Why it matters that Obama dated a composite and ate a dog

Thomas Sowell, National Review – Debunking the Racism Myths: An antidote to the indoctrination of the Left.

Virginian-Pilot – A beating at Church and Brambleton

I wonder why this didn’t garner national media attention…

Lessons:

• Don’t escalate a dangerous situation. This bonehead should have stayed in the car to call 911.
• Be armed!

Daily Mail (UK) – SEALs slam Obama for using them as ‘ammunition’ in bid to take credit for bin Laden killing during election campaign

Marc Thiessen, Washington Post – Ex-CIA counterterror chief says Pelosi ‘reinventing the truth’ about waterboarding

Michelle Malkin – Anti-bullying speaker teaches students all about irony

Jonah Goldberg, Chicago Tribune – My papers? No thank you

Townhall:

• Mike Adams – The Old Rubber Cross
• Star Parker – How to Keep the Poor Poor
• John Ransom – New York Times Outs Apple, Enemy of the People, on Tax “Sidestep”

Washington Times – New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism