Monthly Archives: March 2011

The Calculus of Consent

“The Calculus of Consent” is the title of a famous modern book in political economy by Nobel Prize winner James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock (who deserved to share the prize with Buchanan in many people’s opinion), but I want to use the phrase in a different way to reflect on two news stories from today. First, on the Fox News Sunday panel roundtable this morning (not yet available online, but »

The Hinderaker-Ward Show, Vol. 2

As I wrote here, my long-time radio partner Brian Ward and I have started podcasting on Ricochet. Ricochet is building a new lineup of podcasts that includes, in addition to us, Law Talk With Epstein & Yoo and the Kaus & Limbaugh show (that’s David). That is on top of the original Ricochet podcast, of course. We recorded our second podcast yesterday. Topics include Libya, the Presidential aspirations of Minnesotans »

David Horowitz presents (bumped)

NOTE: When I posted this on Friday morning, I thought readers would find the video below of interest. That has proved to be true and then some. In the comments to this post John Drew makes an appearance. Drew appears on pages 9-10 and 88-90 of Kurtz’s book; Drew’s testimony remains available online in “Meeting young Obama.” I’m taking the liberty of bumping this post in case you may have »

The Hunt for the Imam’s Army

Here in Turkey, we’re consumed by the hunt for the forbidden manuscripts of The Imam’s Army. The police have arrested the author, Ahmet Şık, on suspicion of membership in the Ergenekon conspiracy, and they’re hunting down every copy of the draft of his book. What’s in that book? Who knows? Supposedly it blows the lid on Fethullah Gülen’s control of the Turkish police, or supposedly it contains the organizational blueprint »

There May Not Always Be An England

Do you remember the good old days when an Englishman’s proudest boast was that he paid his way? That was then, and this is now: today something like a half million Englishmen demonstrated in London against proposed budget cuts. Their boast, apparently: someone else pays my way! That’s bad enough. But the decline of British civilization is reflected even more brutally in the rampaging mob that smashed store fronts, “occupied” »

We Are the Change Libya Has Been Waiting For!

It has been interesting to watch pundits of varying stripes respond to President Obama’s Libyan adventure. Some must have gotten whiplash from the sudden 180s they have done. Conservatives, in many cases, have no doubt been tougher on Obama than they would have been on a Republican administration. Still, the most unexpected turnabouts have come on the left. My old friend Bob Shrum shills shamelessly for a policy he no »

A Dramatic Confrontation

This morning, in Tripoli, a woman entered the hotel where foreign journalists are housed and began telling them that she had been detained at a checkpoint and raped by 15 Qaddifi soldiers. The scene was interrupted by Qaddafi security men who dragged the woman away. The New York Times reports: A Libyan woman burst into the hotel housing the foreign press in Tripoli on Saturday morning in an attempt to »

Addicted to Koch

No one has done more to expose the left’s absurd attacks on Koch Industries and the Koch brothers than our own John Hinderaker. To John’s work we must now add Matthew Continetti’s Weekly Standard cover story “The paranoid style in liberal politics.” Continetti observes the process that has provided so much grist for John’s mill: By the time the Tea Party was getting started in 2009, the left-wing counter-counter-establishment was »

Economic Facts and Fallacies

We don’t normally plug books we haven’t read yet, but I’m making an exception for Thomas Sowell’s Economic Facts and Fallacies. The second edition has just been published, and you can get it for a mere $9.55 from Amazon by following the link. Here is Amazon’s Product Description: In Economic Facts and Fallacies, Thomas Sowell exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues in a lively manner that »

Bush Talks with Obama About Campaign Finance Reform

Well, since John has discovered the joys of Xtranormal, I can’t help but offer one from my household, in this case one my skeptical spouse did a while ago on campaign finance reform, which is timely since there is a case before the Supreme Court on Monday about Arizona’s public financing law, which the New York Times today praises as a “calibrated” approach to regulating political speech, good enough reason »

Target: Target, cont’d

We wrote here about the left’s campaign last year against Target, based on the company’s contribution of $100,000 to Minnesota Forward, a PAC that supported Republican Tom Emmer in the race for governor of Minnesota, Target’s home state. Target was, ironically, the source of the wealth out of which Emmer opponent (and ultimately victorious gubernatorial candidate) Mark Dayton funded his numerous political campaigns over the years. Target’s support for Dayton’s »

Bush and Obama Discuss the Deficit

The video we posted yesterday called “Obama Is Awesome” was very popular. I’m not sure who did it, but it used a web site called Xtranormal. I had some time last night–my wife and I were chaperoning an 8th grade party at our house–so I fooled around with the software. The hard part, as you might expect, is the dialogue. This is my first product; it isn’t as good as »

Regarding Syria: A Modest Proposal

So now unrest in the Arab world has spread to Syria, where its dictator Bashir Assad is behaving just like Libya’s dictator (funny how dictators all seem to behave the same way): killing his own citizens in large numbers. Not a new thing for Syria, of course. What to do? It seems unlikely that the Arab League and the UN Security Council will call for action, so Obama will be »

Who’s Next?

There is not a single government in the arc from Algeria to Iran that, in the abstract, one would choose to see survive. In at least six of those countries, rebellions are now in progress. Most Americans no doubt sympathize with these “freedom fighters,” especially in countries like Libya and Syria where the existing regimes are bitterly hostile to us. The great unknown, of course, is who is likely to »

Syria Erupts

Protests against the Assad government have erupted across Syria, with the southern city of Dara’a apparently the main center. Pro-government demonstrations have taken place as well, especially in Damascus. Security forces have shot a number of demonstrators in Dara’a, as this dramatic video shows: There are more videos here and here. The Assad regime is a client of Iran, and Michael Ledeen passes on a report from the Reform Party »

Roosevelt’s Quota

I’ve always wondered why so many liberal Jews are comfortable with racial quotas, given that historically, quotas have worked against Jews more than any other group. Roger Simon exposes a shocking instance from World War II. President Roosevelt, meeting in Casablanca in 1943, suggested a quota system for Jews in North Africa: The number of Jews engaged in the practice of the professions (law, medicine, etc) should be definitely limited »

“Obama Is Awesome”

Someone, I don’t know who, has made some entertaining videos out of dialogue between a rational conservative and a typical liberal. This one is the latest, titled “Libya vs. Iraq.” But I prefer the title Jonah Goldberg gave it: “I don’t care, Obama is awesome.” »