Monthly Archives: May 2003

May 25, 2003 — Scott Johnson

A full deck?

Mitch Berg of Shot in the Dark has come up with a Minnesota DFL Deck of playing cards. My favorites are the two jokers, but the full deck does a good job of representing the Minnesota DFL establishment with the exception of the omission of the head of the Minnesota Education Association and the head of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. When the Commissioner of the Northern Alliance allows for expansion of »
May 25, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Memorial Day 2003

In the photo below, an eight-year-old boy prepares for Memorial Day by putting American flags on veterans’ graves. This Memorial Day, unlike many in the past, our armed forces are on everyone’s mind, partly because of the Iraq war, but mostly because of the transformations that have followed the September 11 attacks. In the photo below, Marines returning from duty in the Middle East salute the hole in the ground »
May 25, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Australia Conveys U.S. Ultimatum to Iran

As we noted yesterday, intelligence reports suggest that the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia were coordinated by al Qaeda elements in Iran; it has also been reported that the Iranian government had advance knowledge of the attacks. This is leading to a more aggressive posture by the U.S. government; Iran policy will be debated by State and Defense Department officials tomorrow. This morning’s article in the Washington Post, which we »
May 25, 2003 — Scott Johnson

After the Leo-cons

Thanks to the guys at RealClearPolitics for posting this interesting profile of Victor Davis Hanson: “The farmer.” There are several funny notes to the piece, including the obligatory reference to Leo Strauss and his alleged followers, but the piece conveys enough information about Hanson to be worthwhile. Although I find reading Hanson calming, the profile makes him out to be anything but placid himself. »
May 24, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

Reflections on Hitchens on Blumenthal

I »
May 24, 2003 — John Hinderaker

“The Black Panthers’ Beauty Moment”

This could be a new low, even for the New York Times. Forget about Jayson Blair; the real scandal is that a newspaper that once had some pretense to quality now prints ignorant drivel like this. The Black Panthers’ “Beauty Moment,” according to one Holland Cotter–reviewing an exhibit of photographs in the Times’ “Arts” section–was 1968. That was the year when Huey Newton was convicted of manslaughter, among other things. »
May 24, 2003 — John Hinderaker

“Contacts With Tehran Ended”

That’s the headline in tomorrow’s Washington Post. The Post’s article, which is based on leaks from State Department sources, says that the Administration “has cut off once-promising contacts with Iran and appears ready to embrace an aggressive policy of trying to destabilize the Iranian government.” The reason is that intelligence intercepts appear to show that al Qaeda operatives in Iran were involved in last week’s bombings in Saudi Arabia. Apparently »
May 24, 2003 — John Hinderaker

The Rottweiler to the Rescue

I was uninspired tonight and checked out some other blogs to see what they are up to. Emperor Misha of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler is one of our favorites. His style is not our style, but there are times when his white-hot rage is entirely appropriate. Tonight he pointed us to these nice Memorial Day sentiments from the Mudville Gazette. He also linked to this horrifying article from the Pakistan Christian »
May 24, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Minnesota’s untouchable monopoly

Our reader Gary Larson has a good column in tomorrow’s Star Tribune. (Unfortunately, the Sunday Star Tribune apparently does not include a letter or any other piece noting problems with the Scheerly disgusting column the Strib ran on Friday.) Gary observes that in the money-wrenching budget battle Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been fighting with the state’s senate DFL majority, the DFL has protected the Indian casino gaming monopoly rather »
May 24, 2003 — John Hinderaker

A Very Sweet Reader…

…named Charity Anderson wrote, wondering whether we have a tip jar or any other means of contributing to the site. We don’t, actually, but I think it’s great for people to chip in a little to help defray bloggers’ expenses and maybe even allow them to turn a small (generally very small) profit. We at Power Line are a little different from most bloggers. We’re older, actually. Which has its »
May 24, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Equal rights for women…the Islamic version

In a sign of the adaptation of Islam to modernity, an Islamic scholar has issued a fatwa declaring that women are as free as men to become suicide bombers and to commit mass murder in the name of Jihad: “Muslim scholar declares women allowed to carry out terror suicide bombings.” »
May 24, 2003 — Paul Mirengoff

An eye for an eye

From WorldNetDaily comes this report on a Colorado judge who overturned the death sentence of a convicted rapist-murdered because jurors read the Bible during their deliberations. The judge held that “jury resort to biblical code has no place in a constitutional death penalty proceeding.” More persuasive to me is the view of the local prosecutors that jurors are not “prohibited from referring to their own personal moral standards — including »
May 24, 2003 — John Hinderaker

Visa Interview Requirements Toughened

In a long-overdue move, the State Department has ordered that visa applicants from most countries, including the Middle East, receive face-to-face interviews before visas are granted. This is a huge step forward, and it is hard to understand what took so long. The change was opposed by representatives of the tourist industry and some other U.S. businesses. Last October, Joel Mowbray of National Review Online obtained copies of the visa »
May 24, 2003 — Scott Johnson

From an ex-friend of Sid Vicious

RealClearPolitics has posted the review by Christopher Hitchens of Sidney Blumenthal’s book The Clinton Wars: “Thinking like an apparatchik.” Hitchens writes of Clinton’s use of Blumenthal: “He threw away the plum and kept the pit, of which this book is the ground-up residue.” »
May 24, 2003 — Scott Johnson

To be young, gifted and right-wing

The spreading of conservatism on campus is the subject of an article in tomorrow’s New York Times Magazine: “The Young Hipublicans.” This article is to be contrasted with the account of commencement-related activities at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts: “Left luggage.” »
May 24, 2003 — Scott Johnson

Hollywood party

In tomorrow’s Washington Post Book World John Meroney reviews the memoirs of a former Communist screenwriter that inadvertently confirm Ronald Reagan’s account of the party’s operation in Hollywood: “Lives of the party.” Meroney’s May 9 Los Angeles Times column on the release of the McCarthy hearing transcripts is an excellent companion piece to the book review: “Despite McCarthy, red peril really was.” »
May 24, 2003 — Scott Johnson

The commander

In the issue of the Weekly Standard out this morning, Peter Berkowitz writes what I hope is a postscript to the journalistic tempest about the alleged posthumous influence of Leo Strauss: “What hath Strauss wrought?” But the standout piece is Fred Barnes’s portrait of General Franks: “The Commander.” »