Monthly Archives: January 2003

The high temperature today in

The high temperature today in Minneapolis was below zero, so this cartoon, which recently appeared in a Montreal newspaper, seemed appropriate. It applies equally to Minnesota, and has considerable resonance in the Rocket household. To all you Power Line readers in Southern California, all I can say is, eat your hearts out! »

Today’s London Times reports that

Today’s London Times reports that police found “protective suits designed for use during a chemical warfare attack” in last week’s raid on the Finsbury Park mosque, but Scotland Yard did not disclose the discovery for fear that such publicity “could inflame racial tensions.” The suits also could be used for protection while formulating chemical or biological weapons. Meanwhile, as a result of the ricin arrests in London, five al Qaeda »

The World Economic Forum is

The World Economic Forum is going on in Davos, Switzerland, and it has drawn the usual cranks protesting under the banner of “anti-globalization,” or, to put it more accurately, “keep the Third World poor in hopes they’ll turn Communist.” For some reason, masks are very big with these protesters. Here is a bus full of them wearing identical masks; this same mask shows up often, but I have no idea »

Along with George Will’s column

Along with George Will’s column on “diversity,” Mark Steyn’s Sun-Times column this morning is one of today’s best: “It’s not just Saddam, but the system that’s got to go.” »

Here is a Washington Times

Here is a Washington Times headline that we hope is right: “Class Warfare Said Not to be Working for Democrats.” The Times quotes James Zogby, himself a Democrat, if I’m not mistaken, as follows: “The Democrats are dead wrong about class warfare. Remember, 66 percent of likely voters in a general election are investors. They have a vested interest in making sure that the stock market is sound and corporations »

Friday’s Boston Globe carried an

Friday’s Boston Globe carried an AP story reporting the striking results of a study of children in single-parent families that was published in the medical journal Lancet: “Single-parent homes studied.” (Courtesy of No Left Turns.) The study tracked a million children for 10 years, into their mid-20’s. »

Today’s New York Times magazine

Today’s New York Times magazine carries a lengthy article by Bill Keller comparing Presidents Bush (43) and Reagan. The article seems to acknowledge that the liberal punditocracy has “misunderestimated” (to use President Bush’s term) both of them: “Reagan’s Son.” (Courtesy of the Rocket Prof.) Also worthy of your attention is another Times magazine article portraying the dying singer-songwriter Warren Zevon (composer of “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” “Tenderness on the Block,” »

Mark Steyn summons all of

Mark Steyn summons all of Britain’s poets, past and present, to a kind of “We are the World” session aimed at producing the “savage indictment of American imperialism to end them all.” He recounts the results in his latest column: “Stanza to reason.” »

George Will is not impressed

George Will is not impressed by the University of Michigan’s argument that its admission policies promote “diversity.” Deacon will not only ace the quiz Will formulates for a real “diversity” policy, I’m pretty sure Deacon will in turn grade this column an “A”: “A Quiz for U. Mich.” »

This Q&A about next week’s

This Q&A about next week’s Israeli elections by Jonathan Tobin for Jewish World Review strikes me as sensible and, at times, insightful. In passing, Tobin notes that “for the first time since Washington noticed that Israelis elected their leaders, it has not tried to impose a left-wing government.” For that, we can thank President Bush. »

The headline in the Washington

The headline in the Washington Post proclaims “FBI Taps Campus Police in Anti-Terror Operations.” My first reaction was amusement, caused by thinking about the Dartmouth campus police of my day, which had the misfortune of being located under the Dartmouth Forensic Union where Rocket Man and I hung out. My second reaction was relief — one would hope that, with terrorists having entered the country on student visas, the FBI »

We are going through a

We are going through a period in which our elites have become hysterical about the fact that the Republicans have more or less taken over the federal government, and history is proceeding without any apparent regard for their preferences. This has a lot of consequences; one minor effect is that it is impossible to get straightforward reporting about poll data. This New York Times/CBS poll is being widely touted as »

This piece in the Washington

This piece in the Washington Times by Tony Blankley is interesting on several counts. Blankley notes a report from London’s Daily Telegraph that the U.N. inspectors have uncovered documents that demonstrate ongoing work by Iraqi scientists to develop nuclear weapons. However, Hans Blix failed to mention these documents during discussions with Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac. Under the Security Council resolution, such information is to be reported immediately to the »

Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan

Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan have an excellent editorial in the issue of the Weekly Standard out this morning. The editorial makes the case for the clarifying effect of the emergence of the Axis of Weasels: “Merci, M. de Villepin.” Claire Berlinski has an equally fine article that constitutes a kind of companion piece to the editorial: “Mrs. Euro’s Mideast Adventure.” The bottom-of-the barrel lying, cowardice, rapacity, and treachery put »

This cartoon by Brian Fairrington

This cartoon by Brian Fairrington of the Arizona Republican is a nice complement to our commentary on the Michigan cases: »

This is a remarkable news

This is a remarkable news story, which I just picked up from Yahoo’s News Photos but have not seen reported anywhere else. The photo below is of an “unidentified Iraqi man holding some files” who jumped into a U.N. van as it was leaving for inspections in Baghdad earlier today. The picture shows him inside the van, with his files held close to his chest, being tugged on by an »

Our reader Peter Swanson has

Our reader Peter Swanson has a letter to the editor in this morning’s Star Tribune. Peter takes issue with the Star Tribune’s editorial endorsing the University of Michigan’s race-based “affirmative action” admissions policy: “Your Jan. 24 editorial suggests that the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy is an ‘honest’ and ‘straightforward’ way of achieving racial diversity. The problem is that the details of the point system only came to light »