Monthly Archives: September 2011
September 28, 2011 — John Hinderaker
We recorded Episode 16 of the Hinderaker-Ward Experience Friday evening. The show features an interview with Ralph Peters, talking, among other things, about his brand-new book, Lines of Fire, as well as his forthcoming novel about the Civil War, Cain at Gettysburg. We talked about the events of the day, including the GOP presidential debates and the fortunes of the various contenders. And, of course, we awarded our Loon of
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September 28, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Earlier this month we noted Ford’s Drive One series ad featuring Chris (video below). Chris explained why he chose to buy the Ford F-150 pickup truck. In a mock press conference setting, Chris was asked why buying American was important to him. Chris responded: “I wasn’t going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government. I was going to buy from a manufacturer that’s standing on their
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September 28, 2011 — Scott Johnson
If schoolyard bullying is a federal issue, then everything must be, right? But in the eyes of the Obama administration, everything is a federal issue. The Obama administration has taken a keen interest in what otherwise has to be the most local of issues. Last year, Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali issued a “Dear Colleague” letter in which she threatened school districts that don’t do enough
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September 28, 2011 — Steven Hayward
This week in my Ashland University political economy class we considered chapter 14 of The Constitution of Liberty, “The Safeguards of Individual Liberty,” where instead of listing specific barriers like the Bill of Rights, Hayek discusses how the rule of law, rightly understood, is a broad barrier to excessive government power. He has an excellent legal-philosophical discussion of one of the knottiest problems in American constitutionalism, namely, delegation of power
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September 27, 2011 — John Hinderaker
The great epic Ben-Hur, which won 11 Oscars in 1959, is being released in a 50th anniversary DVD edition. The Los Angeles Times notes the occasion with this howler, via Big Hollywood: Based on the novel by Lew Wallace, the period drama revolves around Judah Ben-Hur (Heston), a Palestinian nobleman who is enslaved by the Romans, engages in one of the most thrilling chariot races ever captured on screen, and
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September 27, 2011 — John Hinderaker
How many Democrats are National Socialists at heart? Quite a few, I suspect, and every now and then the Democrats’ totalitarian urges break through to the surface. Thus, we have the Governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue, suggesting that we “ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years.” The press assures us that she was just kidding. I would modestly submit that suspending elections is not something an
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September 27, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Are you satisfied with how the U.S. is being governed? If not, you have lots of company. In fact, you are part of an overwhelming majority of Americans. This chart from Gallup, via Ann Althouse, is fascinating: Americans’ dissatisfaction with our government well exceeds anything we saw during the Bush administration, and positively dwarfs the dissatisfaction that preceded Richard Nixon’s resignation. Barack Obama’s election represented a brief respite from a
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September 27, 2011 — John Hinderaker
The Obama administration has been such a policy disaster that little attention has been devoted to its scandals. But scandals there are, especially in Eric Holder’s Department of Justice. Pajamas Media has produced a 12-part (so far) series on Holder’s discriminatory hiring practices. Its conclusion can be summarized simply: Following the Justice Department’s long-delayed compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request, PJMedia recently published content from the resumes of
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September 27, 2011 — John Hinderaker
In Power Line vs. ThinkProgress, a Scorecard, we noted that a reader has gone to the trouble of summarizing some of the lies and misrepresentations that the left-wing web site ThinkProgress has propagated, particularly in connection with its smears of Charles and David Koch. That summary, with links to to the TP posts and refutations of them by us and others, is called the CAP Error and Dishonesty Tracker. I
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September 27, 2011 — Steven Hayward
The trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor for involuntary manslaughter. The new network TV season. (Why is it that Hollywood always resembles the birds on the telephone line, who all take off in the same direction when the first crow squawks “Mad Men”?) Doonesbury. New York Times op-ed columns; all of them. The latest Everton soccer match. (Oops. Better take that one back.) The NBA strike. The Real Housewives of Anyplace.
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September 27, 2011 — Steven Hayward
One of the points I make in my “President Solyndra” story in the Weekly Standard is that the loan guarantee program turned Solyndra from a $300 million mistake confined solely to stupid private investors into a $1 billion dollar mistake that took taxpayers for more than a half-billion, and that this is merely the largest (so far) emblem of the Obama administration’s economic philosophy that is wiping out lots of
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September 27, 2011 — Steven Hayward
President Obama must be fairly rattled already about the prospect of losing to Rick Perry. A couple days ago Obama took a shot at Perry as “a governor whose state is on fire, denying climate change.” It’s another perfect example of the non-falsifiability and complete flexibility of climate alarmism, which works like this: whenever there’s a local weather pattern—winter snowstorms (after being told 10 years ago that England would never
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September 27, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A friend and former government official who closely follows issued related to terrorism forwards a statement released by the Prime Minister’s office on the conviction in Israel of Al Jazeera Afghanistan bureau chief Samer Allawi. Allawi was recruited by Hamas in Pakistan and, working for Hamas chief Khaled Mashal, advanced Hamas’s goals while employing the resources of his employment by Al Jazeera. The Jerusalem Post reported on the story yesterday.
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September 27, 2011 — Scott Johnson
PJTV explains: On September 22 foreign ministers and heads of state attended the Durban III Conference at the United Nation’s headquarters in New York City. It was the third in a series of international events sponsored by the UN whose stated purpose is to combat racism. However, history has shown that the Durban events promote, rather than combat, racism. The Hudson Institute and Touro College organized an event across the
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September 27, 2011 — John Hinderaker
We have written several times over the years about our friend Tom Cotton, most recently here. Tom’s story was summed up in a good article in the Weekly Standard. Tonight I co-hosted a fundraiser for Tom in Minneapolis. Scott and his wife were among the donors who attended. This was the email invitation that I sent out: You are invited to a fundraiser in support of my friend Tom Cotton,
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September 26, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A long-time reader updates his coverage of Roger Maris and reflects on the history of his 1961 home run record. On September 26, 1961, the New York Yankees played their 158th official game of the season. Roger Maris entered that contest with 59 home runs. He needed one more to tie Babe Ruth’s single season record. The Yankees were at home against the Baltimore Orioles, facing Jack Fisher. Five days
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September 26, 2011 — John Hinderaker
President Obama is becoming a regular gaffe machine. Speaking to the Congressional Black Caucus over the weekend, he defended his proposal to raise taxes on the already over-taxed. For a moment, however, he became horribly confused: If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I
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