May 19, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Academic Absurdity of the Year: The Socially-Constructed Penis Hoax

Featured image Just about every time I post an Academic Absurdity here, commenters rightly think it has to be a hoax, and refer back to the ur-hoax of all time, the Alan Sokal Social Text article of 20 years ago that said even physics was “socially constructed.” A very sensible reaction, but in fact all of the ones I have posted are real. Now I have a real hoax to report in »
May 19, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Talk About Low Energy!

Featured imageThe U.S. Department of Education employs 4,400 people and has a current budget of $70 billion. How many children does the department actually educate? I am sure the round number approaches zero. I’ve had a few opportunities to ask liberal audiences aghast at Trump’s appointment of Betsy DeVos and alarmed at proposed budget cuts for the department to name one single thing a past secretary of education or the department »
May 19, 2017 — John Hinderaker

Getting Out of Your Parent’s Basement: How Liberal Policies Hurt Young People

Featured imageThe organization I run, Center of the American Experiment, has just released a funny video that, in just over two minutes, explains why liberal policies are bad for young people. It takes the form of a video game with commentary, and is titled “Parent’s Basement.” Here it is: Created by our friends at Madison McQueen. »
May 19, 2017 — Joe Malchow

Join the National Civic Art Society for a Classical Tour of Washington, D.C.

Featured imageIn my spare time, I serve on the volunteer Board of the National Civic Art Society, an excellent organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. and focused on enforcing aesthetic standards in public architecture. Readers won’t be surprised to learn that the federal government lavishes tens of millions on “starchitects” of low taste and great fame on the global capital cocktail circuit. This summer, the Society is going to run a series »
May 19, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

A victory for charter schools in Los Angeles

Featured imageCharter school backers have won a majority of seats on the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District for the first. The story is here, in a Los Angeles Times article. You have to dig it out, though. The Times leads off by talking about talking about “wealthy charter school advocates” and by giving voice to the unhappiness of a losing candidate. Deep into the story, the Times finally »
May 19, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Life of Pai

Featured imagePresident Trump named Ajit Pai chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. By my lights it ranks as one of Trump’s great appointments. Having served as a commissioner during the Obama administration, Pai had a front row seat to see the FCC’s assertion of control over the Internet under the guise of “net neutrality.” As a conservative Republican of libertarian stripe, Pai forcefully opposed the FCC takeover. See Tim Heffernan’s 2015 »
May 19, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured imageAmmo Grrrll decries A RACKET WRIT LARGE. She writes: A book that had a profound effect on me as a teenager was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Francie, the young protagonist, was, like me, a READER who discovers the library and it changes her life. Unlike Francie, however, we were middle-middle class, living in small towns in South Dakota and Minnesota, and Francie was starvation-level poor, living »
May 18, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Time to “lawyer up”

Featured imageEarlier today, I questioned Eli Lake’s view that Rod Rosenstein did President Trump a favor by appointing Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian involvement in the U.S. election, etc. This Wall Street Journal editorial contends that Rosenstein did no favor to anyone other than the Democrats and their allies. The Journal argues: While the [appointment of Mueller] will provide some short-term political relief, not least for Mr. Rosenstein, »
May 18, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Now I Get It

Featured imageDuring the long campaign I wondered about rumors that the Clintons were secretly behind Trump’s candidacy, or least least hoping he would win the GOP nomination as he’d be the easiest to beat. There’s lots of reporting (and some leaked emails) that the person the Clintons most feared in the GOP field was . . . Jeb Bush. Which shows how bad the Clintons have become at politics. The best »
May 18, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Did Rosenstein do Trump a favor?

Featured imageEli Lake argues that Rod Rosenstein did President Trump a favor by appointing Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead the Russia investigation. Lake says the appointment has quieted a crisis that was consuming Trump’s presidency. He may be right. Certainly, Rosenstein’s move will serve the administration’s short term interests — as well as Rosenstein’s, who suddenly was under vicious attack for doing no more than writing a memo about »
May 18, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Trump agonistes

Featured imageReading the news stories that have created the consuming controversies of the past few days, this is what I see. Hostile officials inside the executive branch of the government seek the removal of Donald Trump from office. They are powerful. They lack any qualms about abusing their positions. And they are determined. With malicious intent, “current officials” inside the intelligence agencies with access to top secret information, for example, have »
May 19, 2017 — John Hinderaker

How Barack Obama Conspired With an Enemy to Undermine US Foreign Policy

Featured imageThe Democrats are trying to make a scandal out of the fact that representatives of the Trump campaign communicated with Russians, even though those communications were 100% appropriate. I had forgotten about this post, which I wrote in March 2015, until Rush Limbaugh read from it on his program yesterday. It reminds us what a REAL scandal involving a presidential campaign and foreign policy looks like: In 2008, the Bush »
May 18, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Rue Britannia

Featured imageThe Conservative Party in Britain has the Labour Party by the throat in the upcoming snap election, and could wipe out Labour for a decade. This is largely because Labour has chosen Jeremy Corbyn as its leader, and Corbyn makes Bernie Sanders look like Jeb Bush by comparison. So what does Tory Prime Minister Theresa May do with the chance to smash the Labour Party to bits? They’ve issued a »
May 18, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

U.S. planes hit pro-Assad military convoy

Featured imageThe New York Times reports that American warplanes in Syria attacked a pro-government convoy today, after it ignored warnings and violated a restricted zone around a base where United States and British Special Forces train Syrian rebels to fight ISIS. American officials say that more than 20 vehicles drove within 18 miles of the al-Tanf base in southern Syria which houses the American and British Special Forces. This constituted a »
May 18, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Make Volatility Great Again!

Featured imageThere’s good reason to think the stock market is overvalued—perhaps not grossly so, but by historical standards at least—and is due for a retreat, which is perhaps what happened yesterday. One of the key gauges of market complacency is the VIX index, which has been very very quiet of late—often a contrary indicator. Well, problem solved! I also got to wondering whether any of the prediction markets were jumping to »
May 18, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Trump breaks campaign promise on Israel

Featured imageIn March 2016, addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, Donald Trump said that, as president, he would move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Trump called that city “the eternal capital of the Jewish people.” Now, however, President Trump has decided to keep our embassy in Tel Aviv. A senior White House official explained: “We don’t think it would be wise to [move] it at this time” »
May 18, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Mr. Erdogan goes to Washington

Featured imageA little bit of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime came to Washington for Erdogan’s visit with President Trump earlier this week. In this case, a little bit is way too much, although it may be a representative sample. Tom Rogan notes that on Tuesday the Turkish Presidential Protection Department attacked peaceful protesters on American soil (video below). Making themselves feel right at home in Washington, TPPD officers launched a coordinated attack »