Monthly Archives: November 2011

America’s first socialist republic

Featured image We provided the platform launching Professor Paul Rahe into the blogosphere. He is one of the country’s most distinguished scholars, but he has also proved to be a natural blogger as well. He now posts regularly at Big Government and at Ricochet. In view of his classic study of Republics Ancient and Modern, Professor Rahe is the academy’s foremost authority on the history of republics. Although his recent work on »

Happy Deep-Fried Thanksgiving

Featured image Making the rounds right now is this William Shatner video (is there anything Shatner can’t do?) about the hazards of deep frying your turkey (3:40 long). Well, I’ve done it without burning down the house for the last two years; this video showing the set up and immersion without fire is just over 1 minute: »

The Occupiers In Two Sad Photos

Featured image Are the Occupiers the lamest political movement in history? These photos suggest as much. This one, via InstaPundit, was taken by the great Zombie for PJ Media. Somehow the spirit of JFK has lost a bit in the current generation: This transposition pretty well sums up the demise of the Democratic Party and American liberalism. Then there is this one, taken at U.C. Davis: Arrest ideas? Heck, in today’s America »

The Real Problem With Obamacare…

Featured image …is not that it will cost too much, or even that it will worsen our medical care, although both of those things are true. The real problem with socialized medicine–the eventual establishment of which is the purpose of Obamacare, according to Barack Obama–is that it will destroy our freedom. Mark Steyn has written that government medicine alters forever the relationship between state and citizen: once you are dependent on the »

The Democrats’ Favorite Republican

Featured image After every presidential debate, the candidates collect favorable reviews–or, much like movie ads, favorable phrases–and email them to their list of political junkies. Some of those compendia are, of course, more impressive than others. This is what came in today from Jon Huntsman: Gov. Huntsman knocked it out of the park at last night’s CNN foreign policy debate, distinguishing himself as the only candidate we can trust to lead on »

Minnesota Public Radio wants you!

Featured image Our friends at Minnesota Public Radio have previously sought to recruit Power Line readers into their network of conservative sources. They know that there is a bit of hostility and resistance to their efforts among our readers. Nevertheless, they persist; they are even willing to endure the occasional expressions of animus that their efforts elicit. Melody Ng of MPR has contacted us to renew the request and invite readers to »

Uh-Oh: Don’t Look Now, But. . .

Featured image Need to take a break from reading Climategate 2.0 emails, because I’m getting eye strain.  More bad news out of the Eurozone, where a German bond auction has failed miserably (Megan McArdle at the Atlantic has a good roundup, but what do you expect when Jon Corzine exits the Eurobond market?), and the Dexia bailout may be coming unraveled. Meanwhile, while all eyes are fixed on the Eurozone, China may »

The Supercommittee’s Failure: What Really Happened

Featured image Finger-pointing is in full swing, but the reality is that the Supercommittee’s failure to come to an agreement on spending reductions is just one chapter in a very long story–the story of the Democratic Party’s absolute refusal to come to grips with the country’s fiscal crisis. Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have produced this helpful time line, with links to supporting documentation. The story of the Democrats’ ongoing malfeasance »

Debate Notes

Featured image I didn’t get home from the GOP debate until late last night (there was an after party don’t you know), and was too tired to post up my notes and impressions then. It is quite a different experience to see one of these events up close and in person.  Based on tenure at AEI or something, I had a reserved seat in the second row—I felt like Bob Uecker—so I »

The persecution of Ted Stevens

Featured image I don’t think much attention has been paid to the story of the scathing report that has been submitted to the court on the government’s prosecution of the late Republican Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens. The jury returned a judgment of conviction on multiple felony counts of failing to report gifts 8 days before the 2008 elections. Senator Stevens narrowly lost his bid for reelection to Democrat Mark Begich because »

Uncommon Knowledge with Paul Rahe

Featured image Last week we posted Peter Robinson’s interview with Paul Rahe. Given our format, the interview rotated off the site after a few days. We should have another installment of Uncommon Knowledge next week. In the meantime, here is the interview with Professor Rahe, once more once, after a brief introduction. Paul Rahe is one of the country’s most distinguished scholars, but he has also proved to be a natural blogger »

Does Time Fly, Or What?

Featured image Yesterday, I ignited a bit of a debate over capital punishment with my post on a NY Times column that foolishly, in my view, attacked the custom of the president annually “pardoning” a turkey in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The real point of that column was to oppose capital punishment–which, however, is not really a partisan matter. Lots of conservatives have shared that opinion, including, most notably from my »

Tonight’s GOP Debate

Featured image There have been so many Republican presidential debates that I have more or less stopped watching them, but my wife twisted my arm and made me watch tonight’s AEI/Heritage discussion of foreign policy, moderated by Wolf Blitzer. So far, it is pretty much the field against Ron Paul. Paul can be effective when he sticks to domestic libertarianism, but as soon as he starts talking about foreign policy, he becomes »

Can We Really Grow With Less Energy?

Featured image A cornerstone of liberal energy policy is the assumption that economic growth can continue even as energy consumption, and therefore CO2 emissions, decline. But there is zero empirical support for that belief. Historically, economic growth equals growth in energy consumption. It is folly to think that we can maintain economic growth while throttling production of energy. The Oil Drum illustrates the point: In recent years, we have heard statements indicating »

#OccupyFail: A Profile in Bad Choices

Featured image Today’s Washington Post Style page offers up this beyond-satire account of  Dylan Bozlee of Hilo, Hawaii, who, the Post explains: dropped out of college at the University of Hawaii to join Occupy, and says he’d rather travel across America than get a job. “Do I want to work? Only if I wanted a home, wife, kids and a dog. If not, I think you’re ruining your life,” he said. Before »

Climategate II

Featured image Another batch of emails from the University of East Anglia–the same source as the original Climategate documents–has been leaked by FOIA.org. I haven’t had time to look at them yet, but various others have been sorting through them, and some preliminary findings are posted here, here and elsewhere. Early returns suggest that these materials may be dynamite. For example: Thorne: I also think the science is being manipulated to put »

OWS Following the Woodstock to Altamont Trajectory

Featured image Numerous observers have pointed out how the media and liberals (sorry for the redundancy) lavished sympathy on Occupy Wall Street until it became untenable to continue, after which they began to airbrush their previous encomia.  They seem to forget that what begins as Woodstock somehow always ends up as Altamont.  It was inevitable that the “spirit of Woodstock” would make an appearance as the cycle of OWS unfolded.  (I used »