Right to Opine

In the WSJ, James Taranto has an incisive analysis of a new study (done by a moderate-to-left-leaning think tank and published in that bastion of conservatism—the NY Times) which shows that when a home is run by a single mom, boys suffer more—educationally and economically—than girls. Taranto makes a number of salient points, but what caught my attention was this thought experiment:

But of course it isn’t. To illuminate why, try a thought experiment: Think about the family as a “business” partnership whose “product” is the next generation.

One reason a business has hierarchies of authority and responsibility is to make the best use of the time of the most vital employees. The CEO may type faster or more accurately than his secretary, but he still delegates the typing because it isn’t the highest use of his time. By contrast, the lone entrepreneur may of necessity do his own clerical work, but at some point he won’t be able to expand further without hiring support staff.

Think of the single mother as the lone entrepreneur. Of necessity she takes on every responsibility of the household: bearing and nurturing the children, providing food, maintaining the physical plant—and, by the way, working outside the home in order to raise operating funds.

Now think of the traditional 1950s household with an employed father and a stay-at-home mother. The mother is able to devote her full efforts to the children and the home. The father may have some secondary household duties—taking out the trash and playing ball with Junior—but most of his time is spent away from home, doing a boss’s bidding, in order to raise money to meet the family’s needs.

Let’s stipulate that in the latter scenario, the mother could do the father’s job just as well as he can. Would that be the highest use of her time? Only if one thinks that office work is intrinsically superior to the development of the next generation. [Emphasis mine.]

I, for one, believe the latter is far more important, and deserves the full attention of a parent.

Michelle Malkin Penny Pritzker: A Chicago Fat Cat for Commerce Secretary?
The corruption never stops.

Thomas Sowell Intellectuals and Race: Part IV

The consequences conservatives predicted re ObamaCare are playing out:

• Scott Gottlieb@WSJ The Doctor Won’t See You Now. He’s Clocked Out
• John C. Goodman Bait and Switch

Kurt Schlichter Conservatives Must Build a ‘Bite Me’ Coalition

Ken Connor Discounting Parents’ Rights

Keith Ablow Moore’s flawed rationale means his photo would motivate public against obesity

Fox Massachusetts principal calls off Honors Night because it could be ‘devastating’ to students who missed mark

Our schools are run by zero-thought liberals, which is why we have…

John Stossel The education ‘blob’ that’s crushing our kids

Thomas Sowell: Intellectuals and Race

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III

A long but very worthwhile read.

Walter E. Williams Educational Rot

Fox (local) Marine with concealed carry permit stops man from beating woman
The Left would rather have allowed the beating to go on until police arrived…eventually.

Chicago Tribune Prosecutor: Man killed because of the way he wore his hat
Liberals will blame the gun…ignoring the fact that this perp is a repeat offender who should never have been released from jail.

WSJ The Ethanol Gas-Pump Surcharge: A 2007 mandate is needlessly raising U.S. gasoline prices.
And increasing the cost of corn, beef,…

Michelle Malkin Obamacare regs: The paper skyscraper
Are tens of thousands of new regs needed to improve healthcare? It’s impossible to know if you’re in compliance when the law is hopelessly complex.

Breitbart Gabby Giffords’s Husband Buys AR-15
He’s either an incredible variety of stupid or the worst hypocrite in the ongoing debate over guns in America.

Bjorn Lomborg Green Cars Have a Dirty Little Secret: Producing and charging electric cars means heavy carbon-dioxide emissions.
An important read from a liberal who believes “climate change” is man-made.

Judge Andrew Napolitano The Right to Self-Defense

Kimberley A. Strassel Jumping the Sequester: When the president canceled White House tours, he revealed his claims as ludicrous.

Mike Shedlock Mish’s Complete Look at Employment Numbers

Frank Turek gives one of the better brief defenses of maintaining the traditional definition of marriage:

• The Case Against “Equality”
• The Case Against “Equality” Part 2

Thomas Sowell:

• Budget Politics
• Economic Mobility

ABC Student suspended for shaping Pop-Tart into gun
Far too many of our schools are run by morons.

Gateway Pundit Obama DHS Purchases 2,700 Light-Armored Tanks to Go With Their 1.6 Billion Bullet Stockpile
Please explain to me why DHS needs 2700 light tanks. You know they’re not using them to protect our borders.

PJ Media Arrogant CO Dem Scolds Rape Survivor At Gun Ban Hearing: Statistics Weren’t On Your Side
And I’m told the war on women is being waged by the Right. Ladies, conservatives think you’re smart enough, responsible enough, and valuable enough to defend yourselves with the best available tools.

Jonah Goldberg Obamacare’s Predictable Problems: Reality isn’t playing out according to the media script.

James Taranto Man of Straw—The latest excuse for Obama: Basic political competence is a superhuman power.

Denver Post Colorado parents of transgender 1st-grader file complaint over restroom ban
Still think “gay rights” is just about “equality” for gays? It’s not. It’s about the obliteration of common sense norms. News flash: if it has a penis, it’s a boy.

Thomas Sowell Shepherds and Sheep

Dennis Prager Environmentalism and Human Sacrifice

Doug Giles Christian Parents Should Have Their Kids Play with Toy Guns

Victor Davis Hanson American Recessional: Declining U.S. influence may be inevitable, but the world won’t be better off.

WSJ Head Start for All: Universal preschool and a government that won’t admit failure.

Joel Kotkin@WSJ America’s Red State Growth Corridors: Low-tax, energy-rich regions in the heartland charge ahead as economies on both coasts sing the blues.

Michelle Malkin The Anti-Choice Left’s Disarming of the American Woman

Julie Golob BAD ADVICE: VP Joe Biden on Home Defense & Personal Protection
Not just bad advice—dangerous and, in many places, illegal. [And who’s Julie Golob? Just one of the most successful shooters in the history of shooting sports.]

Justin Cronin@NY Times Confessions of a Liberal Gun Owner

Jonah Goldberg Operation Hubris: The State of the Union address hardly displayed liberalism reborn.

Larry Elder On Guns, Obama Finally Talks About the Culture of Fatherlessness

Steve Chapman The Minimum Wage and Economic Reality

WSJ:

• The Minority Youth Unemployment Act: A higher minimum wage will hurt Obama’s most loyal supporters.
• Perform Criminal Background Checks at Your Peril: A federal policy intended to help minorities is likely to have the opposite effect.

Susan B. Anthony List Woman Dies following Late-Term Abortion at Carhart Clinic
Safe, legal, and rare? Well, we’ve achieved one of three.

Michelle Malkin The Blame Righty mob falls silent

Walter E. Williams Cultural Deviancy, Not Guns

Neal Boortz Why the Liberal Hatred of Citizens With Guns

Larry Elder Dorner — Another Angry Fatherless Black Man With a Gun

LA Times Women delivering newspapers in Torrance shot in manhunt for ex-cop
NBC Lawyer: LA police shot delivery women without warning

These women were shot without warning simply because they were driving a truck the police thought resembled the suspect’s. (It was the wrong make, model, and color!) Remind me again why police can be trusted with guns but I can’t.

InfoWars DHS Purchases 21.6 Million More Rounds of Ammunition
Can someone please explain to me why DHS needs 30x the amount of ammunition used by our troops during the worst year of the war in Iraq?

Weekly Standard Panetta: Obama Absent Night of Benghazi
Put on your shocked face.

Judge Andrew Napolitano President Obama gives himself permission to kill
Trampling a number of the Constitution’s Articles and Amendments in the process. Shocked face still on.

Fox News Supermarkets cry foul as FDA proposes new food labeling rule under ObamaCare
Does ObamaCare give the FDA this authority? No. Does that matter to this power-hungry administration? No.

Walter E. Williams Women in Combat

John Ransom Uh, Obama? We Have a Problem: Interest Expense to Hit $1 Trillion in 4 Years

Salt Lake Tribune Armed guard disarmed teen in Atlanta school shooting, says police chief
Wait, you mean the NRA was right?

Meanwhile the police waste our money…
Washington Examiner Alexandria cops bust 10-year-old for bringing toy gun to school

The 10-year-old did not point it at anyone or threaten to shoot it…It was silver and had a black handle. It also had a orange tip that went into the barrel, showing that no ammunition was coming out of it.

Oh, so it was obviously a toy rather than a weapon? And you’re arresting him? We’ve become a nation of and led by fools.

Moscow Times Heaviest Snowfall in a Century Hits Moscow
Funny, I didn’t see this reported by the MSM. Must be global warming.

Dan Mitchell Thoughts on “Assault Weapons” and “Magazine Limits” from an Actual Gun Expert

Mike Adams Eat More Chicken and Your Skin Will Thicken

Michael Brown Time For Sensitivity Training