Best of The Freedom Pub This Week

As usual, lots of thought-provoking posts at The Freedom Pub this week. It's hard to limit the "best" posts to fewer than 10, but this feature demands it. Here's the run-down of the good stuff, just in case you missed it:

In "Obama to America: You've Made Enough Money," Ben Domenech dropped in a video clip to make sure we had on the record the president's disturbing take on what he considers the proper limits of free-market capitalism. Before commenting on the financial services bill before the U.S. Senate, Domenech noted that speaking of people who "at a certain point, [have] made enough money," The Obamas "of course, earned $5.5 million in 2009, not counting the $1.4 million Nobel Prize, which was donated to charity." And there's nothing wrong with that, is there?

In "Mohammed Doesn’t Do Comedy Central," new Pubber Mike D'Virgilio pointed to Ross Douthat's must-read column in The New York Times explaining why the self-censorship by Comedy Central of a recent episode of South Park matters. "[I]f a violent fringe is capable of inspiring so much cowardice and self-censorship, it suggests that there’s enough rot in our institutions that a stronger foe might be able to bring them crashing down," Douthat wrote.

In "Regrets, Feminists Have Had a Few," Sam Karnick comments on a piece in Slate magazine by Jessica Grose, who "reacts with abject revulsion toward recent events manifesting what she sees as the 'fervent conservatism' of the current decade." What's got Grose so groused? The fact that new female role models in the culture, such as Taylor Swift, reject the stale, victimization feminism of the 1970s and promote empowerment through personal responsibility.

In "How to Boycott and Not Look Like an Idiot," your humble bartender, Jim Lakely, notes that some on the left are making fools of themselves by boycotting Arizona Iced Tea ... which has always been brewed in New York.

In "Who Is On The Debt Commission? Who Is Not. And Why It Matters," Brian Watt explains ... well, who is on the debt commission, who is not and why it matters. In short, it is devoid of people who work in and can defend the private sector. As Brian notes: "At the end of the day, this commission will be all about finding new ways to tax the American people to bring down the deficit. ... As the discussions go south, the Republicans need to have the political will to walk out, disengage and not be party to this sham."

In "35 Years Ago - Freedom Lost," Jay A. Huminsky posted one of the more enduring news photographs of the latter half of the 20th Century — the one of a stream of out-of-luck South Vietnamese allies of the United States trying in vain to get on the last American helicopter out of the country in 1975. Money quote from Huminsky: "The history of war has a very consistent pattern. When it ends, it's only over for the ones that leave. The vacuum(s) we create when we do not finish a job is catastrophic."

In "Spendthrift Nation," Alan Caruba writes that "President Obama is a virtual wrecking ball to the American economy. Barely eight percent of his cabinet members have ever held a “real” job in the private sector. Those vaunted economists advising him are all loons."

In " 'People with government jobs are just like workers everywhere...'," Ben Boychuk posts a great "Saturday Night Live" skit in which the show mocked government workers with a skit titled "2010 Public Employee of the Year Awards." Ben's post sparked interesting comments discussing the myths and truths of government work.

And, finally, James Arp posted a great video, "Make Mine Freedom," a cartoon made in 1948 by the folks at Harding College that is probably more instructive to Americans today than it was back then. The left would call it insufferably corny. But it's something to show to your friends — especially younger folks, who don't learn much about these basic points about our system of government and society.

Keep the good stuff coming! Maybe you'll make the list next week. And please be sure to invite your friends to belly up to the bar and join us here in conversation and liberty-loving fellowship at The Freedom Pub.