• Some people question Barack Obama’s competence, because he appointed a man with no medical background to be the Ebola czar. But Obama is not trying to solve a medical problem. He is trying to solve a political problem, on the eve of an election — and a political partisan is the way to do that. Expecting Obama to be concerned about a medical threat to the American people is unrealistic, in view of the man’s whole history.
• When I see some of the bonehead plays by professional football players, I cannot understand why guys getting paid millions of dollars cannot stay alert for two hours, once a week.
• Too many intellectuals are too impressed with the fact that they know more than other people. Even if an intellectual knows more than anybody else, that is not the same as saying that he knows more than everybody else put together — which is what would be needed to justify substituting his judgment for that expressed by millions of others through the market or through the ballot box.
• Sean Hannity recently pointed out an essential parallel between Islamic extremists and Nazis. One believed that they were the “master race” and the other that they are the only true religion. Both believed that this entitled them to kill others, just for not being part of their group.
• Unless the Secret Service is given unambiguous authority to shoot anyone who climbs over the White House fence, without being second-guessed by people who will say “he shot an unarmed man,” any president is needlessly at risk — and millions of American voters’ choice for that office can be nullified by any crackpot. You don’t know who is armed or unarmed until it is too late.
• Attorney General Eric Holder hit a new low, even for him, when he acted indignant about the leak of evidence supporting the police officer in the Ferguson, Mo., shooting — on grounds that this was an attempt to influence public opinion before the grand jury makes its ruling. What was Holder doing from day one, other than trying to influence public opinion in the opposite direction?
• In going through my mail, I am always amazed at how many people seem to think that a series of unsubstantiated pronouncements constitutes an argument.
• Except for congressional elections, the most important race this year is for governor of Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker has shown that he has substance and guts, rather than image and rhetoric, by opposing the government employee unions that have been bleeding the taxpayers. He would make a far better Republican presidential candidate in 2016 than congressional phrase-makers or a retreaded candidate who lost in 2012.