Monthly Archives: May 2007

May 28, 2007 — Scott Johnson

A grief observed

Kathryn Lopez designates the picture above of Christian Golczynski as the picture of the day and draws our attention to the related May 13 Nashville Tennesseean story by Brandon Puttbrese: Heather Southward Golczynski pulled six more letters out of her mailbox Tuesday, sent from across the nation by people touched by her husband’s sacrifice and her son’s courage. Her husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Marcus “Marc” Golczynski, was killed in Iraq »
May 28, 2007 — Scott Johnson

On saying “the thing which was not” about al-Sadr

In Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver’s final voyage is to the Houyhnhnms. The Houyhnhnms are horses representing unfallen nature. They speak, reason, act in accord with the dictates of reason, and speak without the capacity of falsehood. Indeed, their language had no word to express the concept of falsehood. Gulliver therefore referred to his own falsehoods among the Houyhnhnms as saying “the thing which was not.” Although the Houyhnhnms had laws, as »
May 28, 2007 — Scott Johnson

Where Eagles Dare

At NRO James Robbins reports on Gathering of Eagles, a group of veterans returning to serve their country one more time by countering antiwar demonstrations. Robbins writes: GOE started out as an event rather than an organization. Its members first gathered to counter the March 17, 2007, antiwar demonstration at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The protest was organized by Jane Fonda and Cindy Sheehan, among others, to »
May 28, 2007 — Scott Johnson

Reclaiming our history at Green-Wood Cemetery

Americans have refused to remit the history of our Civil War to professional historians. This past Friday Andrew Ferguson told the story of James O. Hall, the recently deceased expert on Lincoln’s assassination. Ferguson noted that Hall “exemplified a tradition in the study of American history, particularly in the Lincoln field, where the most interesting writing and research is often done by hobbyists.” (I hope to return to Ferguson and »
May 28, 2007 — Scott Johnson

America’s honor

OpinionJournal has posted Peter Collier’s Friday Journal column on Memorial Day. I don’t think we’ll read or hear anything more thoughtful or appropriate to the occasion today. Here it is: Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those who had given all their tomorrows, as was said of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, for our todays. But in a world saturated with selfhood, »
May 27, 2007 — Paul Mirengoff

Not just rehash, Part Two

Carl Bernstein’s new book about Hillary Clinton contains a very significant quotation from Mark Fabiani, the White House special counsel who played a key role in defending the Clintons during the investigation by Independent Counsel, Kenneth Starr. Fabiani apparently told Bernstein that Clinton was so tortured by the way she’s been treated that she would do anything to get out of the situation. . . And if that involved not »
May 27, 2007 — Paul Mirengoff

Not just rehash, Part One

Scott has already commented on the Washington Post’s story from Friday about the two new Hillary Clinon books — one by Carl Bernstein and the other by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta. The Clinton campaign cannot dismiss either as the product of “the vast right-wing conspiracy,” so it claims that they represent nothing more than a rehashing of old matters — “cash for rehash” in the words of a »
May 27, 2007 — John Hinderaker

Happy Birthday To Us!

It was five years ago today, or this weekend anyway, when I set up the original Power Line site on Blogger. The site’s name, as many of our readers already know, was suggested by a thirteen-year-old friend of my oldest daughter. Scott and I had been writing together for more than a decade by then, and he joined up the following Tuesday, with the prophetic words: “I think this looks »
May 27, 2007 — Scott Johnson

How to read the AP, part 2

Last week we wrote about the AP story that reported the drunk-while-driving arrest of Minnesota Senate President Jim Metzen and initially omitted his party identification. (I trust you can guess which one, as did our astute reader who inferred it by the omission.) Today NewsBusters updates the story with a terrific post by Tom Blumer asking “Does the AP monitor Power Line?” The AP’s diddling was worse than I knew. »
May 27, 2007 — Paul Mirengoff

High drama in Baltimore

I hope that the sports fans among our readers got to see the Duke-Cornell lacrosse semi-final yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn’t because I was on a train at the time. Here’s what happened. Duke went up 10-3 late in the third quarter, seemingly an insurmountable lead for a team of Duke’s quality. However, with Duke goaltender Dan Loftus battling leg cramps in the 90 degree heat, Cornell roared back to tie »
May 27, 2007 — John Hinderaker

A Memorial Day Message From Michael Yon

For a more meaningful Memorial Day message than the AP’s body count noted below, check out Michael Yon’s excellent site. Yon reports from Anbar province: Although there is sharp fighting in Diyala Province, and Baghdad remains a battleground, and the enemy is trying to undermine security in areas they »
May 27, 2007 — Scott Johnson

Northwest Airlines Flight 327: A terrorist dry run

In mid-2004 we followed the apparent terrorist dry run that took place in late June of that year on a Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Los Angeles. We followed the story and even played a role in identifying the Syrian band on the flight in numeorus posts including “Angel Band” and “Not, repeat not Kulna Sawa.” Passenger Annie Jacobsen, whose “Terror in the skies — again?” originally reported the »
May 27, 2007 — John Hinderaker

“Civil Rights,” British Style

There has been much outrage over the absconding of three British terrorism suspects who were under “control orders.” They are the latest of a number of terror suspects who, being left at large under the theoretical control of such orders, have simply disappeared. The Conservative Party’s shadow attorney general charged that the disappearance of the three terror suspects was “entirely of the government’s own making” and evidenced a failure “to »
May 27, 2007 — John Hinderaker

Crocodile Tears from the Associated Press

Jules Crittenden nails the Associated Press so thoroughly that there is nothing left to do but quote: The AP is kicking off Memorial Day weekend with a fresh body count in Iraq. How come no mention of Americans killed in Afghanistan since last Memorial Day? The AP story leads with the number of new graves opened for dead American soldiers since Memorial Day last, but only those killed in Iraq. »
May 27, 2007 — Scott Johnson

Torture: The Real Thing

Last week a captured al Qaeda torture manual was posted online. It’s a document that illuminates the perverse bloodthirstiness and inhuamanity of the enemy we are confronting in Iraq. The response, or lack thereof, to the document among the putative critics of torture is also illuminating. Pajamas Media has posted a good roundup with relevant links here. To comment on this post, go here. »
May 27, 2007 — Scott Johnson

Beltway Kabuki

Mark Steyn’s devotes his Chicago Sun-Times column to the proposed immigration bill, finding a thematic relationship between it, female suicide bombers and an enigmatic Missiouri paternity suit in which identical twins are potential fathers. It is a brilliant column — don’t miss the journey — with a biting conclusion: To embed lawbreaking at the heart of American immigration and to allow it to metastasize through the wider society was perverse »
May 26, 2007 — John Hinderaker

The Excitement Mounts

We’re only 48 hours away from the Miss Universe finale. The betting odds haven’t changed much over the last week. Miss Venezuela continues to be the favorite, with Miss Brazil in second place. I posted their photos, along with some others, here and here. I’m skeptical about some of the other contestants who are among the favorites. There are several others who strike me as stronger contenders. Miss Japan, for »