Monthly Archives: April 2010

For Israel, it’s time to move on

The Jerusalem Post reports that President Obama’s envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is set to leave Israel without having launched “proximity talks” between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. Mitchell is said to have “arrived in Israel on Thursday amid high hopes of a breakthrough” with respect to proximity talks. But PA president Mahmoud Abbas has taken the position that “there will be no resumption of the »

The Paranoid Style of American Liberalism

Liberals, to put it mildly, are not dealing well with their declining political fortunes. For some reason, liberals seem surprised that Americans have not warmed to the Obama administration’s policies, like government takeover of health care; bailouts and government ownership in multiple industries; wasteful and ineffective “stimulus” spending; unheard of deficits; massive tax increases slated for next year; and a foreign policy that perversely alienates our allies and caters to »

Ricochet

Kids who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s got a rather skewed idea of life’s hazards from watching westerns. Quicksand and loco weed, for example, loomed large in our imaginations, as did ricochets–a common hazard in gunfights. A less ominous sort of Ricochet is the podcast series hosted by Peter Robinson, Rob Long and Mark Steyn. They are a fun group, and the podcasts are always entertaining. I joined »

Barack Obama and the arrogance of arrogance

Nicholas Clegg is the leader of Great Britain’s Liberal Democrat party. Until recently, it looked as if the Liberal Democrats would replicate their usual showing in the upcoming elections – a distant third place. That would have been fine. From all I can tell, Clegg is a Euro-liberal who tries to dress himself up as the “anti-politician” alternative to the insiders in the Labor and Conservative parties. Sound familiar? On »

Bleeping Muhammad

The excellent New York Post editorial concisely tells the story behind the thinly veiled death threat issued by one of the usual suspects, this one operating under the name Revolution Muslim, to “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone: This week, to mark its 200th episode, “South Park” featured a bit in which the characters try to figure out how to portray Mohammed without actually showing him. The show »

Remember November

Hot Air calls the video linked below a “dynamite little piece of expressionism from Haley Barbour and the Republican Governors Association, aimed at synthesizing the mood of angry grassroots would-be donors. The message is familiar, but between the HD, the F/X, and the editing, the production values are light years ahead of the usual DNC/RNC crap. If they’re looking to get attention, this’ll help.” Via Instapundit. »

Sweet smell of success

The Washington Post has edited its interview with Dartmouth President Jim Youg Kim into the video below. Paul commented on the video here and here. It’s a thought-provoking video. President Kim quotes his father and cites his father’s role in his his professional accomplishments. President Kim’s father was an immigrant unbound by the constraints of political correctness. Steering his son away from the study of philosophy as an undergraduate at »

It Worked So Well For Bush…

Whenever President Bush talked about immigration, his approval ratings went down. It was like clockwork: liberals never understood that the fatal decline in Bush’s popularity during his second term had at least as much to do with his advocacy of “comprehensive immigration reform” as with war-weariness. Now President Obama has entered the lists, urging Congress to take up immigration. One can only wonder what Congressional Democrats make of this. Maybe »

A Memorable Evening

The Freedom Club is a group of Minnesota businesspeople that supports conservative political candidates. Its annual dinner, held last night, is always a fun event. This year’s speaker was Karl Rove; he delighted a full house that included Scott and me, my radio partner Brian Ward and our wives. In a world of smart people, Rove must be one of the smartest. He is an encyclopedia of public policy; I »

Marc Ambinder unwittingly defines “epistemic closure”

Marc Ambinder addresses the topic of alleged “epistemic closure” among conservatives — a supposed phenomenon that, with great civility and open-mindedness, he labels conservative “madness.” More in sorrow than in anger, Ambinder insists, he agrees that closure/madness does in fact “plague” today’s conservatives. Here’s his proof: Can anyone deny that the most trenchant and effective criticism of President Obama today comes not from the right but from the left? Rachel »

Is Jim Kim “privileged”?

Last night I wrote a post about Dartmouth President Kim in which I quoted from a presentation he gave about leadership. In the presentation, which Scott added to the post, Kim quotes with justified approval and pride his father’s words to him: “If you think this country owes you anything, you’re crazy; you have to get a skill.” Moments later, in talking about a visit to Haiti, Kim mentions several »

Foreign Policy Trifecta

James Corum is Dean of the Baltic Defense College in Estonia. He has taught in American and British staff colleges and was a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army Reserve. In the Telegraph, he critiques the Obama administration’s latest foreign policy mis-steps: Last week was a really bad week for nations that are friends and allies of America. Three nations that have long been close friends and allies of America »

The Daily Dose–of Ignorance, That Is

At the Daily Kos, anonymous lefties who generally have no idea what they’re talking about like to smear better men and women than themselves. This time their target is Michael McConnell, the former judge of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and now law professor at Stanford who is generally regarded as America’s foremost expert on constitutional issues relating to religion. On Monday, McConnell argued a case called Christian Legal »

Shut up, the senior American official explained

Last week we wrote about both Ronald Lauder’s open letter to President Obama and Elie Wiesel’s open letter to an unnamed addressee. Both letters took issue with President Obama’s diplomatic assault on Israel. The Obama administration got the letters but didn’t appreciate the message. Ron Radosh summarizes the letters and takes note of the Obama administration’s response, via Haaretz: “‘All these advertisements are not a wise move,’ one senior American »

Join Us at the Center of the American Experiment’s Annual Dinner

When Scott and I started writing together around 1990, the first notable conservative to support our efforts was Mitch Pearlstein, the President and founder of Minnesota’s Center of the American Experiment. The Center published some of our early research papers and featured us in several programs. Later, Scott and I both served on the Center’s board. The Center’s Annual Dinner is one of the highlights of the Twin Cities’ political, »

Dartmouth’s president says no to philosophy, yes to CEOs

According to the Dartmouth Review, Dartmouth’s president Jim Kim recently opined (quoting his father) that “you are not going to make it in this world if you study philosophy. . .you have to get a skill.” This comment hits home; both John Hinderaker and I were philosophy majors at Dartmouth. One can debate whether we have “made it in this world,” but if we haven’t, our study of philosophy isn’t »

Reality and myth about the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation process

A White House official said to be in the know reportedly has declared that “it doesn’t matter who [President Obama] chooses [for the Supreme Court], there is going to be a big ‘ol fight over it, so he doesn’t have to get sidetracked by those sorts of concerns.” This “realization” supposedly is “liberating. . .the president” to choose whomever he pleases, including someone from the hard left. This view cannot »