Monthly Archives: April 2007

Lest words lose their meaning

Bill Otis at the ACRU blog has launched a Dictionary of Poltical Correctness. Here are some of the first few entries: Multiculturalism – Multiculturalism is a big word meaning, “The West stinks.” The shorthand version is, “America stinks.” Under multiculturalism, George Washington, a slave-owning white male with no accomplishments of note, is out, and Che Guevara, an anti-imperialist leader, is in. Verbal violence – Verbal violence is a statement a »

What if we leave Iraq?

It’s a question I’m starting to get from some conservatives who are looking for alternatives to a war that many doubt can be won (left-liberals, by contrast, don’t particularly like the question; they’d rather just leave). Here’s the answer Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution (no conservative) gave Hugh Hewitt: [I] think [the consequences] would probably be »

Is Obama Smart?

Barack Obama is perceived by many as intelligent. In truth, though, it is hard to see where he diverges from the most troglodytic paleo-liberal. In fact, as Michael Barone notes, Obama has signed on to the concept of “comparable worth,” one of the most mind-numbingly dumb ideas of modern times: In case you don’t know what comparable worth is, it’s an idea concocted by feminists in the 1970s or early »

Looking for Volunteers…

…to live-blog tonight’s Democratic Presidential debate, for those who aren’t able to watch, or can’t stand to watch, or just want to know what others make of it. Anyone can start a thread in the Election 2008 Forum, and once the thread is up, anyone else can join in. It should be interesting, and, like any event that includes Dennis Kucinich, it could be entertaining as well. The event starts »

Senate Passes Surrender/Pork Bill

The Senate passed the Democrats’ war-plus-pork appropriations bill, which purports to dictate a schedule for withdrawal from Iraq, by a 51-45 vote: Republicans Gordon Smith of Oregon and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska sided with 48 Democrats and Independent Bernard Sanders in supporting the bill. No Democrats joined the 45 Republicans in voting against it. Missing from the vote were GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South »

When comedy was king

The “copper clapper caper” is the 1968 Tonight Show skit with Jack Webb reprising his “Dragnet” role as Sergeant Joe Friday and Johnny Carson playing Everyman reporting the offense. I remembered the skit earlier this week when writing about Klavan’s classic column in the current City Journal. It is sheer joy. Don’t try not to laugh — you might hurt yourself. »

Tehran calling

Eli Lake and Richard Miniter have both interviewed Osman Ali Mustapha, a former Kurdish police officer who was recruited as a spy for the Iranians. Lake notes the issuance of Iranian green cards to terrorists in Iraq. Miniter observes that Mustafa »

House Passes Surrender/Pork Bill

The vote was 218-208; two Republicans voted in favor and 13 Democrats were opposed. The roll call is here. »

A switch in time?

Today, as Scott noted earlier, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the Wisconsin Right to Life case, which arises from the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (the McCain-Feingold bill). At issue was the part of McCain-Feingold that »

America: The Last Best Hope

The second volume of William Bennett’s history of the U.S. — America: The Last Best Hope — is out. I haven’t had a chance to start reading it yet, but I assume Bennett has adopted the same approach to American history that he used in the first volume, which he described as follows: In this work, I will not try to cover up great wrongs. Injustices need sunlight — always, »

Just Maybe, She Might Show Up

Henry Waxman’s Orwellian-named Oversight and Government Reform Committee served Condoleezza Rice with a subpoena today, to testify on “what she knew about administration’s warnings, later proven false, that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger for nuclear arms.” Where to begin. Actually, as we’ve pointed out many times, the weight of the evidence is that Iraq did, in fact, try to buy uranium from Niger. Beyond that, what President Bush actually »

Dream palace of the goo-goos revisited

President Bush did a very bad thing when he signed off on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (the McCain-Feingold bill). I took a whack at explaining how it strikes at the core of our freedoms in the Standard column “Dream palace of the goo-goos.” While I was working on the column, attorney and former Federal Election Commission staffer Allison Hayward guided me through the intricacies of campaign finance »

Could Things Get Worse?

Sure they could. At his Washington Post blog The Fix, Chris Cillizza assesses the Democrats’ prospects for getting to the “holy grail” of Senate control–60 seats–over the next couple of election cycles. He thinks they aren’t too bad: The last time a party held 60 or more seats was three decades ago when Democrats had 61 seats in the 95th Congress (1977-1979). But, the combination of a toxic political environment »

McCain Enters the Race

Well, that’s not exactly a news flash. He’s been in the race for a long time. But John McCain formally announced his candidacy in New Hampshire earlier today. You can read his speech here. It’s good. In the late 1990s, Bill Kristol and others formulated a concept of “national greatness conservatism;” McCain was sometimes viewed as an exemplar of it during the 2000 campaign. Like many other things, national greatness »

One face still red at Yale

Thanks to James Taranto for pointing out the Yale Daily News story yesterday rescinding the diktat banning theatrical weapons from Yale stages. Dean Betty Trachtenberg had promulgated the ban. She sounds mad as hell about the criticism to which it was subjected: “I think people should start thinking about other people rather than trying to feel sorry for themselves and thinking that the administration is trying to thwart their creativity,” »

Black like Hillary

In her New York Post column today Michelle Malkin argues that Hillary Clinton pulled off a “a reverse ‘Sister Souljah’ strikeout” in her appearance with “racial racketeer” Al Sharpton at the National Action Network demagogue-a-thon in New York last week. At Michelle Malkin, Michelle gives her column the heading I’ve used here. To comment on this post, go here. »

The Star Tribune does that wudu that it does so well

The Star Tribune has already removed Curt Brown’s page-one Star Tribune article on the coming of Sharia to the Minneapolis Community and Technical College from public access. Here is the paragraph I quoted from the article in “Sharia in Minnesota”: Minneapolis Community and Technical College is poised to become the state’s first public school to install a foot-washing basin to help the school’s 500 Muslim students perform pre-prayer rituals. “We »