Monthly Archives: December 2007

Wobbly ball no problem for this Scot

Michael Thatcher, grandson of Margaret Thatcher, helped lead his Texas high school football team into the state semi-finals with “a brilliant diving catch from a looping 48-yard pass in front of 10,000 fans.” The catch prompted the television announcer to exclaim, “Wow! Can the guy run, can he catch, can he do everything?” Thatcher grew up in South Africa and has only been playing football seriously since his American mother »

An Odd Controversy Gets Odder

One of the several controversies surrounding the CIA’s destruction of tapes of the interrogations of at least two terrorists involves the September 11 Commission. The chairmen of the Commission have expressed outrage over the tapes’ destruction and have alleged that the CIA “withheld” the tapes from the Commission, notwithstanding the Commission’s requests for information about the interrogations. Philip Zelikow prepared a memorandum for the Commission reviewing the Commission’s requests and »

Toleration without relativism

Power Line reader and former Mormon Kenneth Anderson, writing in the Weekly Standard, pauses to “consider what damage the evangelical goading, and Romney’s response to it, have wrought upon the possibility of pluralism in political America.” Anderson finds the damage considerable. The core question raised by the evangelicals and addressed by Romney is: when it comes to religion and religious belief, what should voters allow themselves to inquire of a »

Southwest delivers

The members of the Texas National Guard (436th Chemical Company, 36th Infantry Division) temporarily stationed at Fort Bragg were expected to be deployed to Afghanistan before the holidays. They were granted a week of holiday leave when their deployment was delayed, and Southwest Airlines picked up the tab to fly the 180 soldiers home to Texas for the holidays. The largest group (of 110) traveled on a plane Southwest put »

A War That Wasn’t

One topic that has been happily absent from newspaper headlines this year is the “war on Christmas” that has been a feature of the last few holiday seasons. If there ever was such a war, this year seems to represent a truce. No doubt there was a school somewhere where the kids celebrated Kwanzaa but not Christmas, or something of the sort. Whatever. As I wrote a few years ago–does »

A good thing comes to an end

Manchester United ended Everton’s 13 match unbeaten sreak, which included 11 wins, with a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford yesterday. Christiano Ronaldo, arguably the best player in the world, had both Man U goals, including the winner on a penalty with only two minutes remaining. I didn’t see the match, but it’s difficult to agree with Soccernet’s assessment that Everton deserved a draw, given the statistical domination by United. However, »

A spiteful seasonal column

If you have ever visited Israel, you know the care with which Israelis safeguard the holy sites of all faiths. It has nevertheless become a seasonal pastime for news outlets to run stories bashing Israel for depredations it has allegedly committed on Bethlehem. Dion Nissenbaum and Cliff Churgin’s AP story “Reality in Bethlehem mars Christmas tradition” contains elements of the traditional stocking stuffer, but by far the worst of the »

It’s the Clintons, stupid, part 2

Yesterday I noted Ms. Hillary’s miraculous reunion with her former Chicago-area Sunday school teacher at a recent campaign event in Donnellson, Iowa. At Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft rounded up a full set of links, screen shots and videos to give witness to the miracle. Over the weekend Jim noted the deserved recognition he has received from Chris Muir. »

Of thee I sing, baby

The Wall Street Journal has made an online game out of matching the presidential candidates with the songs they play at their public appearances. I don’t want to spoil the game; I will say only that in this contest Mitt Romney gets my vote twice over, first for wit and then for taste. Play Name That Politician’s Tune. »

Because Che is so pass

At The Nose on Your Face, Potfry flogs the latest in Islamic Rage Boy shirt designs. »

Because Che is so pass

At The Nose on Your Face, Potfry flogs the latest in Islamic Rage Boy shirt designs. »

Resistance with a Cuban face

Saturday’s Wall Street Journal featured a moving article on the Cuban blogger Yoani S »

The Times rewrites the present

Last night I sat down with the New York Times Magazine to give Matt Bai’s long, long cover story on “The Clinton Referendum” a look. I’d read good things about Bai and thought I’d see what he had to say about the Clintons. I made it a couple hundred words into the article before reading this: Listening to [Bill Clinton] talk, I found it hard not to wonder why so »

A Christmas Story

The Associated Press–let’s give them credit when they play it straight–delivers one of the feel-good stories of the season: Ala’a was 9 years old, strong of will but weak of body »

Here In Minnesota, It’s Getting Cold

It’s no surprise when it’s wintry in Minnesota in late December, but this year, it’s especially cold and especially snowy. We’re predicted to have the whitest Christmas since 2001; maybe I’ll post a photo or two tomorrow. Nowadays, of course, the weather isn’t just the weather; it’s a political commentary on the effort by certain elites to panic the rest of us into disrupting our economy to fight “global warming.” »

No Buses Necessary

A prominent canard in the debate over illegal immigration is the claim that, should we begin to enforce our immigration laws, we would be faced with the prospect of deporting 10 million or more illegals–an impossible logistical task, according to many pro-illegal immigration commentators. The conservative response has always been that no such deportation would be necessary; that if we enforced our laws, illegals would return across the border the »

Socialism With A Pretty Face

Venezuela’s Hugh Chavez wrapped up a four-day visit to Cuba yesterday. The visit was part of Chavez’s effort to use oil money to extend his influence in Latin America. He signed agreements with Raul Castro that will fund Cuba’s purchase of tankers, build a pipeline and pump $170 million into a power plant. The growing power of socialist Venezuela and its ally Iran in Latin America is no laughing matter, »