"Obamacare has hit a lull. The president's signature domestic policy program isn't causing quite as much chaos right now in people's lives as it did last October and November during the incompetent launch of healthcare.gov. The absence of an immediate crisis has prompted smug suggestions from the usual suspects in government, on campus and in the news media to declare that the law is working and people like it. 

"Obamacare is working only in the unlikely event that its goal is to deliver the Senate to Republicans this fall. Disapproval of Obamacare hit an all-time high last month, in part because premiums keep rising. PriceWaterhouseCoopers finds that the average insurance premium in the Obamacare exchanges will rise by 8 percent this year. ... 

"So, even though Obamacare is not exploding into a thousand pieces at this moment, it has saddled millions of people with higher costs and inferior coverage. It offers precious little of benefit to the middle class — those people whom Democrats keep saying they work for, and whom will march angrily to polling stations in November."

"America’s basic objective is clear: We must seek to destroy the Islamic State. It is simply not enough to block the group’s threat to the Kurds or other vulnerable minorities in the region. The risks of even a relatively small 'state' (or 'caliphate,' as they proclaim it) are chilling. Leaving the Islamic State in place and in control only of its current turf in Iraq and Syria (including northern-Iraqi hydrocarbon deposits and associated infrastructure) would make it viable economically and a fearsome refuge for terrorists of all sorts. Just as Afghanistan’s Taliban gave al-Qaeda a base of operations to launch terrorist attacks culminating in 9/11, a similar result could follow if the Islamic State successfully erased and then redrew existing boundaries."

"These are the worst people on earth. They openly, proudly crucify enemies, enslave women and murder men en masse. These are not the usual bad guys out for land, plunder or power. These are primitive cultists who celebrate slaughter, glory in bloodlust and slit the throats of innocents as a kind of sacrament. 

"We have now seen what air cover for Kurdish/Iraqi boots on the ground can achieve. But for a serious rollback campaign, Obama will need public support. He has to explain the stakes and the larger strategy. His weak and passive rhetorical reaction to the beheading of American journalist James Foley was a discouragingly missed opportunity. 

"'People like this ultimately fail,' Obama said of Foley’s murderers. Perhaps. But 'ultimately' can be a long way — and thousands of dead — away. The role of a great power, as Churchill and Roosevelt understood, is to bring that day closer."

"Those of us who admit that we were not there, and do not know what happened when Michael Brown was shot by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, seem to be in the minority. 

"We all know what has happened since then -- and it has been a complete disgrace by politicians, the media and mobs of rioters and looters. Despite all the people who act as if they know exactly what happened, nevertheless when the full facts come out, that can change everything. 

"This is why we have courts of law, instead of relying on the media or mobs. But politics is undermining law.  ... 

"If we can't be bothered to stop and think, instead of repeating pat phrases, don't expect to live under the rule of law. Do you prefer the rule of the media and/or the mob?"

"The most poisonous '-ism' now infecting Ferguson, Missouri, is not virulent racism. It's viral narcissism. 

"Over the past two weeks, the impoverished St. Louis County suburb has become a magnet for self-absorbed publicity seekers of all colors and agendas. 

"Perhaps the most repulsive species on display in Ferguson is the Journalisto Vanitatis. This breed of egotistical East-Coast reporters can be easily identified by its ever-present appendages: a smartphone and smart glasses. ... 

"From the L.A. riots to Hurricane Katrina to Ferguson, an eternal truth endures: Tragedy is the mother of poisonous pretension."

"Vulnerable Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is under renewed scrutiny for potentially violating campaign finance laws by tapping official Senate funds to cover the cost of fundraising trips. 

"A review of Landrieu’s office expenditures and campaign records reveals two trips from 2012 that may have been improperly billed to her Senate office rather than her reelection campaign.  ... 

"Both trips included campaign-related events that raise questions about whether some or all of the costs of the charter flights should have been covered by Landrieu’s reelection campaign, rather than her official office. 

"The trips are becoming a serious headache for Landrieu, who is in the fight of her political life this year against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). After other reports of improper travel spending, Louisiana Republicans are dubbing Landrieu 'Air Mary' to portray her as out of touch with voters after her lengthy Senate career."

"Kay Bailey Hutchison. Tom DeLay. Rick Perry. 

"Any list of the most powerful politicians to hail from the Lone Star State over the past 50 years would certainly include the three names listed above. Certainly, they are three of the most powerful Republicans to hail from Texas in modern times. Yet former Sen. Hutchison, former House Majority Leader DeLay, and Gov. (seemingly for all of time) Perry also share another thing in common. As of late Friday night, all three have been indicted by grand juries in Travis County, Texas, on so-called 'public integrity' charges. ... 

"The weakness of the case against Perry may be the least of the worries for Perry's critics (fair-minded and otherwise). Do not underestimate the political consequences of this indictment: Perry may not be a rocket scientist, but he is among the most effective political actors in the country -- just ask Hutchison how easy it is to beat him. 

"By attempting to put him in prison, liberals have made the governor a martyr. He can now bid for the White House as a brave hero fighting the Left."

"No president can anticipate all the twists and turns the world will take during his tenure in office. But this president has been proven dreadfully wrong. Between rounds of golf and political fundraisers -- first things first -- he has been forced to realize that America cannot withdraw from troublesome parts of the world without terrible consequences."

"This far into the human story, only the historically uninstructed are startled by what they think are new permutations of evil. ... 

"The Islamic State uses crucifixions to express piety and decapitations to encourage cooperation. These are some of the 'folks' — to adopt the locution Barack Obama frequently uses to express his all-encompassing diffidence — Obama was referring to when talking to the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman. 'That’s exactly right,' Obama said when Friedman suggested that Obama believes all Middle East factions must agree to a politics of 'no victor, no vanquish.' It will be interesting watching Obama try to convince the crucifiers and the crucified to split their differences."

"A few weeks ago, it was quite revealing -- but not surprising -- to hear Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew imply that corporate America should willingly pay the highest corporate-tax rates in the world as part of its 'patriotic' duty. This kind of discourse demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of capitalism, which is an important component of American exceptionalism. 

"In our system, people do not go into business, in many cases risking everything they have and more, in order to support the government. They obviously take those kinds of risks to make money. Instead of chastising American businesses for making financially prudent overseas investments, a wise and understanding government would be creating a domestic environment that is conducive to investment, innovation and growth, reducing the appeal of foreign explorations. A fair tax structure and a reduction in unnecessary regulations would go a long way toward establishing this environment."