Monthly Archives: March 2005

Our First Werewolf Post Ever

When I was I kid, I liked Alfred Hitchcock’s short story collections. My favorite horror story was called “The Kill;” I forget who wrote it, but it was about a young man who had inherited a property in central Europe and was en route, on a train, to claim it. The train stops at a station late at night, and is delayed for some hours. There is one other person »

Media Alert

I’ll be on Laura Ingraham’s radio show at around 9:15 or 9:20 a.m., central time, talking about the “talking points memo” controversy. Should be fun. »

Iraq Seen Turning Corner

In this morning’s Washington Times, Rowan Scarborough sounds a theme that you’ve seen here and else where in the blogosphere over the past few weeks: In the privacy of their E-ring offices, senior Pentagon officials have begun to entertain thoughts that were unimaginable a year ago: Iraq is turning the corner. »

Mr. Kurtz, call your office

Thanks to Lucianne and to RealClearPolitics for flagging Rocket Man’s brilliant Daily Standard column today: “Fake but accurate again?” See also the article by Fred Barnes from the current issue of the Standard: “The ABCs of media bias.” »

The light of the Sun

Today’s New York Sun carries Richard Miniter’s exclusive report on the American ambassador who impeded bin Laden manhunt: “How a lone diplomat compromised the hunt for bin Laden.” I find this to be an almost unbelievable story — a reductio ad absurdum of the State Department’s occasional resistance to the administration’s objectives. The ambassador at issue was a Bush appointee who joined the State Department in 1977 after teaching high »

Eurabia: A review

Bat Ye’or’s important new book Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis is reviewed by Bruce Thornton at the Private Papers site of Victor Davis Hanson. Thornton’s review is “The culture of dhimmitude.” »

The big fix

Roger L. Simon has initiated a series of reports with original reporting on the oil-for-food scandal. His first report bears on the preliminary results of the Volcker investigation in a report that is to be released tomorrow. »

Whose Talking Points?

The Daily Standard has posted my article on the purported Republican talking points memo on the Schiavo case, titled “Fake But Accurate Again?” UPDATE: Writing from a different perspective, Michael Barone rejects the cynical claim that either side of the Terri Schiavo debate was motivated mostly by politics. »

Credit where credit is due

We don’t think much of CBS News here at Power Line. But I’m very high on CBS Sports after watching its excellent documentary, “Tragedy to Triumph, The University of Maryland Basketball Odyssey.” There are a number of schools with more glorious basketball histories than Maryland’s. But how many have given us colorful and poignant personalities to match the likes of Lefty Dreisell, Len Bias, Gary Williams, and Juan Dixon? »

Thou shalt not criticize our robed masters

It is possible to construct an honest defense of modern judicial activism. However, that activism consists of striking down laws that are the product of the democratic processes, based on nothing more than judges’ sense of what is decent and proper (as confirmed, where possible, by foreign law). Thus, the defense of judicial activism entails a fair amount of contempt for the American people’s sense of decency and propriety. For »

My Nation Debut

Reader Isaac Cheifetz points out that I’ve been quoted for the first time (and presumably the last) in the current issue of The Nation. The article, by Rebecca MacKinnon, is on the conference at Harvard’s Kennedy School that I attended in January. Rebecca quotes an exchange between Jeff Jarvis and me; the point I make is one that we have made over and over in connection with the 60 Minutes/Texas »

Happy Easter…

…to our Christian readers, of course, and to all others for whom the day is an occasion for renewal and reflection. The promise of spring is finally in the air here in the Upper Midwest, and I hope that the gloom that has hung over recent weeks will soon be dispelled. »

Neither Bribed Nor Coerced

In the latter half of the 20th century, Albania was what North Korea is today: the most repressed, backward, socialist country on earth. The liberation of eastern Europe brought, perhaps, greater change to Albania than any other country. Its government, once a bitter enemy of the United States, is now friendly and grateful to this country. In today’s Washington Times, Albania’s ambassador to the U.S., Fatos Tarifa, explains why his »

Me thoughts I heard one calling

Today’s New York Times Book Review publishes a long review by Clive James of Camille Paglia’s new book on poetry. The review appears under the headline “Well versed.” I see Drudge has flagged the Times review, suggesting that the publication of the book is a major event of some kind. I doubt it, but Drudge must think it noteworthy that Paglia is using her celebrity, such as it is, to »

Diamond or cubic zirconia?

Our friend Steve Hayward frequently writes about environmental issues when he’s not working on the second volume of his invaluable Age of Reagan. I infer that Steve has been plowing his way through Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed while wearing his environmentalist’s hat. In a post over at No Left Turns, Steve has spotted a passage in Diamond’s book that curiously echoes the fabricated statement »

What Went Wrong

Steve Sailer reproduces a letter from a Florida lawyer, who comments on how the seemingly perverse outcome of the Terri Schiavo litigation came about: I have been following the case for years. Something that interests me about the Terri Schiavo case, and that doesn’t seem to have gotten much media attention: The whole case rests on the fact that the Schindlers (Terri’s parents) were totally outlawyered by the husband (Michael »

Terrorists Want Out?

Liberals were, by and large, surprised when socialism collapsed in Russia and throughout Europe fifteen years ago. (Of course, to be fair, that might be because they were relying on the CIA’s rosy reports on conditions in the Soviet Union.) Likewise, I think, liberals will be surprised, and in some instances disappointed, as the Iraq “insurgency” winds down much faster than is now expected. We’re a day late on this, »