Insights, Issues & Istook

All the push for gun control has backfired. . There's been a remarkable change among black Americans, with 54% of blacks saying guns help protect them from crime. Two years ago, it was only 29%. Events have reminded us that if someone breaks into your home, you have to defend yourself before the police can arrive.  

The dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is being pushed backwards. Many voted for President Barack Obama believing it would be good to have our first black President. . Obama and buddy Al Sharpton say the problem is that racism is  They make it sound like most Americans are racist when in fact very few are.

  Dependency on government is rampant; self-reliance keeps dropping. . .  

Egg prices are up by over 40%, because "regs hurt eggs." Your food budget is climbing due to new rights for chickens.   California now requires that all eggs sold there must come from chickens that are given more living space.    Not knowing where their eggs will be shipped, egg farms everywhere follow California's new regulation. This means doubling the size of cages where hens are kept. 

Do you know that your governor is being bribed? And your mayor? State and local lawmakers constantly are "bribed" with federal money. Over 1,100 federal programs offer $640-billion a year if state and local officials will change their policies to run things the way that Washington wants them run.  

An investment tip for 2015: Buy red tape. And companies that profit from it. There's explosive growth in government red tape. In 2014, almost 80,000 pages of new regulations were issued. In 2015, President Obama plans an equal number of additional rules and regulations. Companies that work for the bureaucracy are making a fortune. The top 25 federal contractors are being paid $175-billion a year.    

Labor leaders begged Congress to allow cuts in retirement benefits for union-run pension funds with underfunding of 20 percent or more, which cover 10-million union members.  So Congress and President Obama just changed the law. Some employers are also allowed to reduce pensions. But unions have lost their moral authority to complain that businesses are just greedy.  Among unions, companies, and government, a lot of benefits have been promised to win people over—promises that are turning out to be unaffordable.   

Police have become targets thanks to racial agitators who react with charges of racism rather than checking the facts when police shoot someone. A better use of the agitators' time would be helping to fix this: Young black men are 1% of the population but commit 27% of the murders. (FBI statistics)  

After repealing their state law against marijuana, Colorado has decided they should study the impact. One of every eight people in Colorado now smoke marijuana.  Yet studies clearly show it causes brain damage. For those in their teens and 20's, it lowers their IQ. For all ages, it impairs memory and the ability to think. The image of dazed laidback stoners is not a myth.        

While Congress dithers, President Obama moves amnesty full speed ahead, hurrying to make it a done deal before legislation or the courts can stop him. Already 1,000 new workers are being hired to process millions of amnesty and work permit applications.

For 22 years Uncle Sam has paid tens of billions of dollars to subsidize giant windmills that generate some of America's most-expensive electric energy. Marita Noon tells Ernest why it's time to stop those "temporary" subsidies. She is executive director of Energy Makes America Great.  

The President wants body cameras for local police. How about a body cam for Obama? He says body cams can help close the trust gap between police and communities of color. But that's tiny compared to the trust gap between Washington, DC, and the rest of the country.  We need to look into the back rooms and compare it with their public statements. The body cams make that possible.

Our economic stimulus isn't coming from government—but from oil and gas. It's a true boost to our economy and to family budgets from lower oil prices, resulting in lower gasoline prices and lower prices on shipping goods and on travel. Each day consumers save $630-million on gasoline compared to six months ago. Over a year, that's $1,100 per household.   

It guaranteed trouble when Congress only approved federal spending until December 11th. The most controversial expense at issue is the huge cost of President Obama's amnesty plan.

Obama and others are making racial tensions worse. Lip service against violence and rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, is undercut by words and acts and amplified by a media frenzy.

The police scanner traffic of the St. Louis County Police reveals the chaos of the Monday night rioting in Ferguson, Missouri. Listen to these excerpts.

Rioting in Ferguson should be blamed on pandering more than on racism. Sadly, President Obama gave only lip service to keeping protests peaceful. Instead, he said that the rioters' anger “was understandable.” He never pledged that the rioters, arsonists, shooters and looters would be punished and held accountable under the law.  

Just like with Obamacare, the President is using propaganda to promote amnesty Obama has a Constitutional duty to assure that our laws are faithfully executed. That means amnesty is supposed to be judged case-by-case, not by rubber-stamping millions of applicants under his plan.

Uncle Sam needs to quit making bets on wind energy and, in the process, save us all about $10 billion a year. Let the industry rise, fall or spin its rotors based on its own merits, without the crony capitalism government giveaways. It will also save money for consumers. We pay three times because wind energy raises electricity rates, on top of what we pay in federal subsidies and state subsidies. Read more .

Forget amnesty, Obamacare and even terrorism. Our new crisis is that we're running out of chocolate. America has a dangerous dependence on foreign chocolate. Could government subsidies provide an alternative?