Monthly Archives: December 2010

December 21, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Alberto Gonzales Returns to DOJ

Eric Holder’s interview with Good Morning America had a retro feel to it. For example: Attorney General Eric Holder has an urgent message for Americans: While he is confident that the United States will continue to thwart attacks, “the terrorists only have to be successful once.” Where have we heard that before? It turns out that terrorism is a very real problem: In the last 24 months, Holder said, 126 »
December 21, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Ham? Don’t Mention It!

It sounds like parody, but this story from Spain is evidently true: The parents of a Muslim boy who attends a secondary school in La Línea, Cádiz province, have reported their son’s teacher for an incident in the boy’s geography class which the child said caused him offence as a Muslim. The teacher, José Reyes Fernández, with more than 20 years in the profession, was explaining to the class how »
December 21, 2010 — Scott Johnson

The Behar letters

I took after the journalist Richard Wolffe for criticizing Sarah Palin on MSNBC. Palin said she had found inspiration in the works of C.S. Lewis. Wolffe derided her for finding inspiration in children’s literature. Wolffe was ignorant of Lewis’s vast corpus, including many works of popular Christian apologetics. I reviewed Lewis’s works and concluded that Wolffe didn’t know Jack. I think Palin was referring to one or more of Lewis’s »
December 20, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Just your average secularist leader

Did you know that Saddam Hussein had a Koran written in his own blood? I didn’t, but apparently it’s true. According to the Guardian: Over the course of two painstaking years in the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein had sat regularly with a nurse and an Islamic calligrapher; the former drawing 27 litres of his blood and the latter using it as a macabre ink to transcribe a Qur’an. But since »
December 20, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Dartmouth’s pseudo-turnaround, Part Two

Charles Dameron, editor of the Dartmouth Review, has responded to my post disagreeing with his claim that Dartmouth is experiencing a turnaround under President Kim. Joe Asch at Dartblog, in turn, has responded to Dameron. I have two points to add to Joe’s response, with which I agree. First, Dameron writes: As for left-wing bias and general foolishness, I have been lucky enough not to encounter much of either in »
December 20, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Deal on Judges Apparently Reached

The Associated Press reports that Senate Republicans have reached an agreement with the Obama administration, whereby “at least 19 of President Barack Obama’s non-controversial judicial nominees win confirmation in the waning days of the congressional session in exchange for a commitment by Democrats not to seek votes on four others.” Notably, one of the four is Goodwin Liu, a hard-core left-wing law school dean whom Obama nominated to the already-liberal »
December 20, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

What price Qatar? Part Two

Reader David G, who has attended a World Cup abroad and who has spent time in Qatar, is even more appalled by the decision to hold the 2022 Cup there than I am. He writes: I attended the 2002 World Cup in South Korea while serving in the US Navy and stationed in Japan. I’ve also spent more time than I care to think about in the Middle East and »
December 20, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Who Had the Worst 2010?

There are several possible answers to that question. One, certainly, is Barack Obama, as the Associated Press acknowledges: “Obama’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.” Barack Obama’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year got off to a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad start. There he was, on New Year’s Day, on vacation with his family in Hawaii, stuck on a secure phone with counterterrorism officials, trying to »
December 20, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Re-Elect Me, Or I’ll Sue!

It’s no secret that many incumbent politicians have a sense of entitlement to their offices, but Democrat Steve Driehaus of Ohio has taken it to a new level. He lost his re-election bid in November, and now has sued the Susan B. Anthony List in federal court, alleging defamation and “loss of livelihood” for pointing out that Dreihaus flip-flopped on the abortion issue. Unfortunately, Dreihaus is hardly the only member »
December 20, 2010 — John Hinderaker

So Long, 2010

JibJab is back, with Barack Obama and Joe Biden bidding farewell to a horrible (for them) 2010. The video is packed with allusions to events of the last year, some of which I had almost forgotten: »
December 20, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

The nation’s capital for bad sports teams and bad sports commentary

I have little time for sports fans who moan about the shortcomings of their local teams. Only a strong sense of entitlement can lead fans to believe that just because they live in or near a city, that city’s sports teams should be good. On the other hand, it’s been miserable being a D.C. area sports fan this month. Between December 3 and yesterday (when the highly-rated Washington Capitals broke »
December 20, 2010 — Scott Johnson

The latest from PMW

Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch writes this morning: “PMW wants to personally thank our subscribers and supporters. In response to your many actions – your emails to You Tube, your blogs, tweets, op-eds, and calls to Google – as of this morning the YouTube ‘Palwatch’ account is once again functional. Much thanks to everyone.” The Jerusalem Post updates the story here. UPDATE: Melanie Phillips comments on this incident. »
December 20, 2010 — Scott Johnson

One pillar of unwisdom

Paul Pillar is Paul Mirengoff’s former Dartmouth roommate. I don’t think Paul has ever spoken more highly of anyone on this site than he has of Pillar. The current issue of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine carries Matthew Mosk’s extremely interesting profile of Pillar and his current opposition to the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. At several points the article includes Paul’s comments on Pillar. Mosk is an investigative reporter »
December 20, 2010 — Scott Johnson

Ronnie Spector’s best Christmas ever

Last night Ronnie Spector — she of the Ronettes — appeared before a sold-out house at the Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis to perform a Christmas show. Backed by a five-piece band and two backup singers, Ronnie turned the clock back while performing the Ronettes’ greatest hits in addition to the Christmas fare. She looked great and sounded fantastic. The lady still has the pipes. In his »
December 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

The Washington Post — from DADT repeal cheerleading to character assassination in seven pages flat

The lead headline in today’s Washington Post was “‘Don’t Ask’ Is Repealed In Historic Vote.” For the Post, “historic” means something it really, really likes. The Post likes DADT repeal so much, it worked to bring it about. As I pointed out here, the Post turned its pages over to an unidentified source to spin the Pentagon’s report in favor of repeal before it was released. The Post did so »
December 19, 2010 — Paul Mirengoff

Dream on

Yesterday, the Senate defeated the DREAM Act. During the build-up to the vote there were, as usual, warnings about the impact defeating this legislation will have on the Republican Party’s ability to win the votes of Hispanics. And, as usual, some of the warnings came from Democrats. For example, Chuck Schumer noted that the Hispanic vote was probably decisive in the re-election of Democratic candidates for the Senate in Colorado »
December 19, 2010 — John Hinderaker

Barack Obama’s Department of Selective Justice

We are a few days late, but it is worth noting this editorial by Investors Business Daily on the Obama Justice Department’s selective enforcement of the laws: On Monday, Justice sued an Illinois school district for rejecting a Muslim teacher’s request to take a three-week leave of absence to travel to Mecca. The suit claims that the Berkeley School District discriminated against middle-school instructor Safoorah Khan, whose religion “required” her »