Monthly Archives: May 2011

May 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Manchild and the promised land

In this incredible video of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s remarks following his meeting with President Obama, Netanyahu explains why Obama’s peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, announced yesterday, is a nonstarter. As we have frequently observed, President Obama doesn’t know much about history. Netanyahu seizes the opportunity to do a little homeschooling. “We don’t have a lot of margin for error,” Netanyahu said to the president. “Because, Mr. President, history »
May 20, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Gingrich vs. Ryan: Who Is Right?

We commented on the political aspects of Newt Gingrich’s criticism of Paul Ryan’s approach to reforming Medicare here, but what about the merits? Is the Ryan plan the best path forward for Medicare, assuming that we want that program to continue in some form? This video by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation explains how the voucher approach can not only solve the fiscal crisis threatened by Medicare, but »
May 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Friends and enemies

Of the commentary I have been able to read on Obama’s speech on the Middle East yesterday, I think Caroline Glick’s is the shrewdest. From a close reading of the text of Obama’s speech, Glick deduces Obama’s prospective support of the emerging jihadist political forces in Egypt and Tunisia, and elsewhere as well. When it comes to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, Obama glides over the Palestinian »
May 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Does Medicare Have A Future? Do the Democrats Care?

Every sentient American knows that Medicare is a fiscal disaster, and that the program must either be reformed or terminated. The Medicare Trustees recently released a report that indicated Medicare is five years closer to bankruptcy than it seemed a year ago. But, as Yuval Levin points out, the news is actually much worse than that: [T]he real shocker in this year’s report is a letter that the chief actuary »
May 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Barack Obama, Neocon?

President Obama delivered a speech on the Middle East at the State Department today. If one takes it seriously, it signified–with one key exception–Obama’s transformation into a virtual clone of his predecessor. President Bush’s democracy agenda, which Obama once scornfully rejected, has now been adopted as Obama’s own: The status quo is not sustainable. Societies held together by fear and repression may offer the illusion of stability for a time, »
May 19, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Pushing Grandma Off a Cliff

Every time you think the Democrats can’t possibly sink any lower, they do. This ad, by something called the Agenda Project, depicts Paul Ryan pushing grandma off a cliff. Seriously: Your first impulse is to think that such a hateful ad must be produced by fringe characters who are unrelated to the respectable left. But no: the Agenda Project and its founder, Erica Payne, are entirely mainstream. The group’s web »
May 19, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Is Jerusalem part of Israel?

Over at the Hoover Institution’s Defining Ideas, Richard Epstein deliberates over the arguments in the case pending before the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the statute that provides: “For purposes of the registration of birth, certification of nationality, or issuance of a passport of a United States citizen born in the city of Jerusalem, the Secretary [of State] shall, upon the request of the citizen or the citizen’s legal »
May 19, 2011 — Steven Hayward

It’s The End of the World As We Know It

As you’ve probably heard, the world is going to end about 48 hours from now. Or the beginning of the end, or something. Or so says Harold Camping, an evangelical broadcaster who has been spending big bucks on newspaper and billboard ads to let us know so we can sort out our sock drawers in time. (I assume the newspapers and outdoor advertisers asked for up-front payment for the ads, »
May 19, 2011 — Scott Johnson

The times they are a-laughin’

Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen — and keep your eyes wide the chance won’t come again. Newt Gingrich press secretary Rick Tyler comments on conservative criticism of the boss, I think — and don’t criticize what you don’t understand: The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the »
May 18, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Ryan vs. Gingrich

A long-time reader and friend is intrigued by the politics of the Paul Ryan-Newt Gingrich controversy over the Medicare reform component of the House budget. He writes: The Ryan budget represents, in part, a political power play by its author. Ryan understands that his plan has no chance of becoming law this year or next. His goal is to shape the budget debate and, if possible, dictate the Republican position »
May 18, 2011 — John Hinderaker

The Power Line Prize, Continued

The Power Line Prize is generating a lot of excitement. Go here to learn all about the contest. Briefly, whoever comes up with the most creative and effective way of dramatizing the severity of the federal debt crisis will win $100,000. Total prize money is $125,000. Power Line is sponsoring the contest in conjunction with the Freedom Club. The Freedom Club is the principal supporter of conservative causes and candidates »
May 18, 2011 — John Hinderaker

The Hinderaker-Ward Experience: Episode 8, Coast to Coast

I was on vacation for a while, first attending a board meeting at Dartmouth, then continuing on to Kennebunkport for a few days with my wife and youngest daughter. We had a great time, as always. Of course, we couldn’t hang out in Kennebunkport without paying a visit to the Bush (Walker, actually) home there. The Bush place is on a peninsula; you can see it easily from across a »
May 18, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Comrades! Stop the Kochs!

We had fun here and here at the expense of Robert Greenwald, a failed Hollywood filmmaker who sold out to the Left and started producing “documentaries.” Currently he is being paid to make a series of very silly videos attacking the Left’s target du jour, the Koch brothers. Greenwald’s productions are witless Stalinism, but a reader directed our attention to this much funnier effort, titled “Comrades! Stop the Kochs!” If »
May 18, 2011 — Steven Hayward

More Flood Analysis

The Washington Post reports sensibly this morning about how the Mississippi River flood is causing us to rethink how we manage flood-prone river basins. Long overdue. How overdue? After Hurricane Katrina I wrote a long piece pointing out that the hue and cry about climate change in the weeks after Katrina was taking after the wrong environmental factor. A couple sections of that paper seem relevant to the current moment: »
May 18, 2011 — Scott Johnson

From South Greenwood to Dartmouth

Knowing our interest in matters related to Dartmouth College, a reader alerted us to Drew Harwell’s moving St. Petersburg Times story on Bennie Niles IV. Bennie is a rising freshman in the Dartmouth class of ’15. Harwell’s story is that of a young man from a poor neighborhood who overcame adversity to gain admission to an elite college. The most striking if least surprising part of the story is the »
May 18, 2011 — Scott Johnson

Uncommon Knowledge with Thomas Sowell

Hoover Institution fellow Thomas Sowell is a remarkable man who has produced a distinguished body of work over a long career. His achievements should be recognized in some appropriate way, perhaps with a Medal of Freedom to go with the National Humanities Medal that President Bush awarded him in 2002 (his friend Clarence Thomas picked it up for him). When he turned 75 a few years ago, Sowell observed his »
May 17, 2011 — John Hinderaker

Corrected, But Not Enough

This morning’s New York Times contained the following correction: An article on May 7 about the Obama administration’s appointment of a panel of experts to find ways to make hydraulic fracturing safer misstated the prevalence of cases in which fluids from the gas drilling process have been proven to have contaminated drinking water. There are few documented cases, not numerous ones, although federal and state investigations into reports of such »