Monthly Archives: January 2011

January 21, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Cold? Do You Think It’s Cold?

The current temperature here in the Minneapolis suburbs is ten degrees below zero. The high today was three or four degrees. Last night it got down to twenty below zero. So it’s winter; what else is new? The snow in my neighborhood is piled as much as twelve feet high. The national pond hockey tournament is in progress on one or more Minneapolis lakes, which, of course, are frozen solid. »
January 21, 2011 — John Hinderaker

The Most Emailed NYT Article Ever

Via InstaPundit, the most emailed New York Times article ever. It is a parody, of course, but the TImes often reads like parody, so it is sometimes hard to tell the difference: It’s a week before the biggest day of her life, and Anna Williams is multitasking. While waiting to hear back from the Ivy League colleges she’s hoping to attend, the seventeen-year-old senior at one of Manhattan’s most exclusive »
January 21, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Goodbye to One of the World’s Worst People

Keith Olbermann abruptly parted company with MSNBC tonight. Apparently his contract was either canceled or not renewed by the network, but the circumstances of his departure are not yet clear. Olbermann was one of the great haters in the media, but that wasn’t what caused his downfall: he is being replaced by Lawrence O’Donnell, one of the few people in America who is arguably more hateful than Olbermann. My only »
January 21, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Voters Not Buying What Obama Is Selling

Today President Obama announced that he has appointed GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt to head his newly created Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Obama explained in terms that only a political consultant could love: Speaking at GE’s birthplace in Schenectady, N.Y., Obama said that the economic recovery is entering a new phase that will necessitate a greater focus on job creation, innovation and international competitiveness. “The past two years years have »
January 21, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Good News on the Labor Front

Labor union membership declined again in 2010: The nation’s labor unions saw another sharp decline in membership last year even as the economic recovery began and job losses slowed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says unions lost 612,000 members in 2010. That drops the unionized share of the work force to 11.9 percent from 12.3 percent in 2009. In the private sector, union membership is down to 6.9 percent, “a »
January 21, 2011 — Scott Johnson

A letter to the editor of Time

Beyond circulating the lies of the Palestinian Authority — I wrote the Weekly Standard article “He didn’t give at the office” about one pathetic example — the mainstream media are engaged in their own defamation of Israel. Time’s article “Israel’s rightward lurch…” is a case in point, followed on by the Washington Post’s “Israeli human rights groups sound alarm…” Netanyahu adviser Ron Dermer responded to Time’s article with a letter »
January 20, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Smearing Supreme Court Justices

Common Cause started as a bipartisan organization that had considerable merit, but as always seems to happen, it was taken over by the left and is now just another arm of the Democratic Party. Which is why the organization wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder to lodge an ethics complaint against Supreme Court justices Scalia and Thomas. This is the bottom line: Common Cause hereby formally requests that the Justice »
January 20, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Another Atrocity Down the Drain

Once a week, Palestinians stage a demonstration against Israel’s anti-terror fence in the West Bank village of Bilin. The demonstrations have evolved into something of a ritual, with protesters throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers and the mob eventually being dispersed. On December 30, the protest took place as usual. But the next day it was reported that a woman named Jawaher Abu Rahma had died in a West Bank hospital »
January 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson

A salute to Senator Lieberman

After Senator Joe Lieberman announced yesterday that his current Senate term would be his last, Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matthew Brooks responded by lauding the Senator’s accomplishments and expressing gratitude for friendship across the political aisle: Senator Lieberman is a true mensch and a great American. He showed that it’s possible to have a successful political career while doing what you feel is right – even when what’s right »
January 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson

The man who would be king

I grew out of a stutter when I was a kid so long ago that I had almost forgotten it, but watching “The King’s Speech” over the holidays brought back some painful memories. The “King’s Speech” is a wonderful movie, the kind that just about the whole family can enjoy together without embarrassment and that audiences spontaneously applaud when the credits start rolling (as the one we were in did). »
January 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson

On the House vote to repeal

Repealing/disabling/deconstructing Obamacare is the single greatest task confronting the Republican Party. Obamacare represents the nationalization of the greatest health care system in the world and a terrible threat to American freedom. The House vote to repeal Obamacare is a first step, but I don’t think we’ll be reading much analysis of the House vote in the mainstream media. At the Weekly Standard, Jeffrey Anderson considers the meaning of the House »
January 19, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Palin for president? Michael Perry responds

We’ve heard from many readers responding to John’s post evaluating Sarah Palin as a presidential candidate. Here is one (slightly edited) message that captures some of the points made by our readers that are worthy of consideration: I’m sure you mean well, but what you’re saying in “Palin for President? Forget it” is that slanderous attacks should be allowed to succeed. But don’t forget that, if they work with Palin, »
January 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Not Just Uncivil, But Wrong

Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee is getting a lot of attention for comparing Republicans to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels on the floor of the House during the Obamacare debate. This, obviously, is what Democrats have in mind when they talk about the need for greater civility in political discourse, right? Just kidding. What is significant, though, is not that Cohen’s attack was uncivil, but rather that it was wrong. »
January 19, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Why not the rest?

John writes off Sarah Palin as a presidential contender in light of her current poll ratings. Mark Tapscott thoughtfully expands on John’s post. It’s no surprise that her numbers, whatever they are, have fallen over what they were two weeks ago into a zone that makes her look implausible. She has just taken an unbelievable pounding at the hands of the mainstream media. Yet she is a resilient figure and »
January 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker

House Votes to Repeal Obamacare

In its first big vote since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives earlier this month, the House voted 245-189 to repeal Obamacare. Every Republican voted for repeal. The left’s party line is that the vote is only symbolic since repeal won’t pass the Senate; therefore, House Republicans are wasting their time. Nothing, in my view, could be further from the truth. The Democrats jammed Obamacare through Congress during »
January 19, 2011 — Scott Johnson

In which the AP toes the line

Until this month, Democrats have controlled at least one of the houses of the Minnesota state legislature since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. In November, however, Republicans won control of both houses, even while voters narrowly elected a Democratic governor for the first time in a generation. We’re in a period of adjustment. The state is confronting a fiscal crunch. Republican legislators are pushing a bill »
January 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Palin for President? Forget It

The time has come to put any thoughts of Sarah Palin running for President to rest. I say that not because I dislike her; on the contrary, I’m a fan. I think she did an excellent job as a vice-presidential candidate in 2008 and has been an effective spokeswoman for conservative causes in the years since. But there is no way she is ever going to be elected President, and »