Monthly Archives: October 2011

A Hands-On President–On Your Wallet, That Is

Featured image Remember the woman in the YouTube video who was convinced that, once Barack Obama was president, she would no longer have to pay to gas up her car? She pretty well summed up the intellectual basis for Obama’s 2008 campaign. One would think that by now, even the stupid know better–after all, where was all that money supposed to come from? Michael Ramirez explains: »

Is Global Warming Causing Hurricanes?

Featured image Of all the claims that the alarmists make on behalf of anthropogenic global warming, perhaps the most outrageous is that hurricanes–think Katrina–are becoming more frequent and more severe as a result of human activity. Actually, hurricanes have not become either more frequent or more violent, which one might think would put the issue to rest. But the alarmists know they have reporters on their side, so inconvenient truths won’t be »

From Clarence Thomas to Herman Cain

Featured image Politico’s attack on Herman Cain this morning, and subsequent events, have been eerily reminiscent of the Democrats’ ambushing of Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearing. Has anyone checked to see whether Anita Hill ever worked for the National Restaurant Association? Cain, like Thomas, is defended vigorously by everyone who knows him: “It’s just not Herman,” says Sibby Wolfson, who was Cain’s executive assistant from 1997 through his first campaign for »

Herman Cain at Pillsbury

Featured image Today’s big news story is the revelation that while he was with the National Restaurant Association, Herman Cain was accused of some sort of impropriety by two women. It is impossible to know what to make of this story. Apparently no formal claims were brought, Politico’s description of the events that gave rise to the complaints is too vague to evaluate, and the amounts reportedly paid to the women in »

The gang that couldn’t shoot straight

Featured image Minnesota liberalized the law allowing citizens to arm themselves in the early days of the administration of Governor Pawlenty. The law vastly expanded the right of Minnesota citizens to acquire licenses to carry guns, a right formerly subject to the unfettered discretion of local police chiefs or sheriffs. Liberalization of the law carried out a long-standing Republican commitment and was of course the subject of daily hysteria in the local »

Who Is Barncat Jones?

Featured image I have no idea. But maybe someday that question will resonate along the lines of, “Who is John Galt?” Barncat is a musician and satirist of considerable talent. We linked to his Elvis Presley parody, “The Solyndra Song,” here. Now Barncat has come out with “Hope & Change,” a Springsteen adaptation sung to the tune of “Glory Days.” Which seems appropriate, given how far behind him President Obama’s glory days »

A One-woman Wrecking Crew, Revisited

Featured image A long-time reader comments on one of our “picks” from last week – a Politico piece about Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin’s relentless attacks on Rick Perry: Ben Smith’s Politico story about Jennifer Rubin reminded me of several Power Line posts from the last presidential cycle. Back then, a former blogger on this site, noting Rubin’s attacks on three major Republican contenders, called her “a one-woman wrecking crew.” What amused »

Debating Miss World, With Illustrations

Featured image Beauty pageants and debating are two of my favorite things. My youth was misspent–not, unfortunately, due to too many beautiful girls, but rather because I devoted an inordinate amount of time to competitive debate. These two interests collided Friday night, as 122 Miss World contestants descended on Cambridge University, and in particular the Cambridge Union Society, which bills itself as the world’s oldest debating society. The topic of discussion was »

Population Bomb Epic Fail, Part 2

Featured image Steven Den Beste and a number of other commenters anticipated much of my second planned installment about the arrival of the 7 billionth human being tomorrow, noting that the issue is irrelevant to the Left: all that matters to the Left is gaining power.  Any issue will do. But it is hard to credit the Left even with good intentions when you see how quickly the institutions they set up »

Was This News Story Scrubbed? Vote On It!

Featured image The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that yesterday, a small group of “Occupy Minnesota” demonstrators were augmented by representatives of local unions: Union leaders headlined a day of OccupyMN street theater Saturday, capped when about 300 protesters marched peacefully across downtown Minneapolis, denouncing the region’s three biggest banks. “Banks got bailed out — we got sold out!” was one of several chants delivered during the march. So, what unions were represented? »

Killing Castro

Featured image Edward Jay Epstein writes: We are now approaching the 48th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and every year since I first wrote on this subject in 1965, I am asked “Was Oswald alone, and, if not, who was behind the assassination?” While researching Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald, I interviewed Thomas Mann, the former US Ambassador to Mexico in 1976. He told me »

Sunday morning coming down

Featured image I found an excuse in a post a few years back to refer to John Fogerty and his Creedence Clearwater Revival song “Proud Mary,” which I asserted was “great.” This was too much for John Hinderaker. He entered a brief dissent: Familiar, yes. Beloved by bands who play at wedding receptions, yes. Less annoying in CCR’s original version than in Tina Turner’s cover, true. But “great”? Uh-uh. The issue raised »

A unified theory of left-wing causes

Featured image Steven Den Beste comments on Steve Hayward’s population bomb post: Isn’t it interesting that no matter what the current global crisis is, according to leftists, the solution is always the same: a benevolent world dictatorship of the enlightened elite, and mass transfer of wealth from rich nations to poor nations. That’s what they want to do about global warming. It’s what they wanted to do about overpopulation. It’s what they »

Halloween, the Sequel

Featured image Unfortunately, it isn’t a movie. It’s reality. Barack Obama is presiding over, and helping to create, the scariest economy since Jimmy Carter. Michael Ramirez shows what makes us all shudder with horror: »

Moscow 1963

Featured image In the summer of 1963, my father was one of six lay delegates from the American Lutheran Church to the Fourth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Helsinki, Finland. A Google search reveals that the assembly lasted from July 30 through August 11, but my parents were gone pretty much all summer. My older brother and I spent the summer in Annapolis, Maryland, with our uncle the spy and »

Reporting From St. Paul’s

Featured image The various “Occupy” movements around the world are remarkably similar. More akin to a crime spree than a political movement, the occupied zones quickly degenerate into hell-holes. A reporter from the Daily Mail joined the occupiers outside St. Paul’s Cathedral under cover, and filed a report accompanied by lots of photos: The 12th meeting of the General Assembly of the London wing of the international revolution against capitalism is not »

Population Bomb Epic Fail

Featured image On Monday, the world’s 7 billionth person is expected to be born.  Somewhere.  Look for the media and the usual worn-out handwringers to strike up the usual dirge.  I’m sure Paul Ehrlich has a full dance card for the day.  The “Tom Friedman Random Column Generator” app can retire early for the day, after disgorging “Hot, Flat, and Even More Crowded, Oh, And By The Way, Did I Mention That »