Monthly Archives: March 2012

Who Reads Power Line?

Featured image Mark Steyn, that’s who: “As John Hinderaker wrote at the Powerline blog, ‘In that last observation, Kennedy seems to be channeling Mark Steyn.'”  Okay, so this is verging on postmodern irony–we read Steyn (who doesn’t?), and he reads us back.  But in any case, tell your friends they should be reading Power Line, too. »

“FROM THREE DAYS TO THREE WORDS” (Updated and Re-Posted)

Featured image Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s haughty dismissal in 2009 of the question of the constitutionality of Obamacare is getting widely recycled, and this week she was reduced to incoherence, as this RealClearPolitics video shows.  Excerpt: “I’m a supporter of judicial review, I honor the Constitution in that regard,” Pelosi said to reporters. “That’s why we wrote our bill in a way that was Constitutional. I still feel pretty confident about it. »

Obamacare against the Church, and vice versa

Featured image We have sought closely to follow the assault on Catholic institutions that is being conducted in the implementation of Obamacare. Today James Taranto adds to the story with an interview of Archbishop Timothy Dolan: The president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops is careful to show due respect for the president of the United States. “I was deeply honored that he would call me and discuss these things with me,” »

Ten Years of the CRB

Featured image In Novemeber 2010 kicked off the tenth anniversary festivities celebrating the Claremont Review of Books at the Institute’s Salvatori award dinner honoring Mark Helprin in New York. Professor Charles Kesler is the founding editor of the CRB in its current incarnation and took the podium to mark the occasion following Mark Helprin’s impassioned speech. Adding to the festivity of the occasion was the presence in the audience of Sam Tanenhaus, »

Remy Explains Insurance Mandates

Featured image Our pal Remy Munasifi explains the stupidity of how existing government mandates needlessly drive up the cost of health insurance.  Video is about 2:30 long: »

MSNBC, the Faux News Network [Updated With MSNBC’s Response]

Featured image Liberals have been feverishly attacking Fox News for years now, irate that the Left’s monopoly on television news outlets has been broken. Conservatives, on the other hand, have tended to ignore MSNBC, even though that network is far more partisan, and less reliable, than Fox. Perhaps this is because of a perception that hardly anyone watches MSNBC. It is true, of course, that that network’s ratings are nowhere near Fox’s, »

Justice Breyer flunks Con law

Featured image Reading the transcript and listening to the audio of day 2 of the Obamacare argument, I was struck by the sheer intellectual laziness and complacency of Justice Breyer. To liken him to a rodeo clown would be to credit him with too much energy. Referring to the key New Deal Commerce Clause case of Wickard v. Filburn, Breyer asked, for example: “Didn’t they make that man growing his own wheat »

Citizens United II? An Obamacare Roundup and Predictions

Featured image There is no shortage of learned commentary about the course of argument over Obamacare at the Supreme Court this week, so I won’t add to the pile of legal analysis.  Instead, let’s just look at some political factors, and I’ll offer a couple of predictions and suggestions. Let’s start with Justice Kennedy, thought to be the swing vote.  Lots of people think Justice Kennedy is swayed by elite opinion, or »

Jay Nordlinger comes to town

Featured image With our friends at the Center of the American Experiment we are co-sponsoring the appearance of National Review senior editor Jay Nordlinger for a lunch presentation on his new book, Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World. Jay will be appearing at the downtown Minneapolis Hilton at 1001 Marquette Avenue South on Friday, April 20, at noon. Jay’s »

The gathering storm, cont’d

Featured image A highly knowledgeable Democratic friend emails Ron Ben-Yishai’s YnetNews report “US thwarting Israeli strike on Iran.” The report asserts that the Obama administration is leaking information to the media in order to avert an Israeli strike in Iran. Ben-Yishai observes that in recent weeks the administration has “shifted from persuasion efforts vis-à-vis decision-makers and Israel’s public opinion to a practical, targeted assassination of potential Israeli operations in Iran.” My friend »

Honoring The Greatest Sports Announcer Ever

Featured image Growing up in the LA area in the 1960s and 1970s, there were many constants in life: really bad smog, gridlocked freeways, Saturday trips to Laguna and Santa Monica beaches.  But by far the greatest constant was the Dodgers broadcasts of Vin Scully.  Listening to Dodgers games on the radio was a summer ritual in the Hayward household, especially the east coast road trips, when the games started at 5 »

Who Reads Power Line?

Featured image Rush Limbaugh, that’s who, as we learned today on the show opener: “I was reading a blog post today at Power Line. . .”  We haven’t got him on camera yet like our previous endorsers (more to come in this series, by the way), but stay tuned.  And tell your friends they should be reading Power Line, too. »

Barack Obama, Race Hustler

Featured image President Obama has fanned the flames of hatred in the Trayvon Martin case, and has not said a single critical word about the outrageous actions of the New Black Panthers, who offered a $10,000 bounty on George Zimmerman–the same New Black Panthers on whose behalf Eric Holder quashed a federal criminal prosecution; or of Spike Lee, who tweeted a wrong address for Zimmerman, presumably to facilitate harassment or even murder; »

Is Socialized Medicine Unconstitutional?

Featured image Some liberals have comforted themselves with the idea that if Obamacare is ruled unconstitutional, it may speed the adoption of the liberals’ real goal, socialized medicine, on the theory that “single payer” will then be the only alternative to the status quo. Such thinking is understandable, as it has generally been assumed that whether or not socialized medicine is a good idea, if Congress were to adopt it, it would »

The Power Line West Coast Bureau in Action

Featured image So Power Line’s West Coast Bureau had a meet-up last night, where John and I, duly forming a quorum as well as a majority of the board of active bloggers, made big plans for our fall election coverage, and many other things, over several (as in more than two) bottles of fine local Paso Robles wine.  Naturally, we decided Scott will do most of the work.  Stay tuned for some »

The Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Month for the Left

Featured image It is typical for politically-engaged people to note the weaknesses and defects of their own side, while overestimating the strength and prowess of their opponents.  This is not a bad instinct, but sometimes it’s worth stepping back and trying to view the whole scene from a neutral perspective.  It is possible a neutral or objective observer would conclude that the Left has just had about the worst month in longer »

The legend of Earl Scruggs

Featured image The death of Earl Scruggs at the age of 88 represents the passing of a giant. Even if you have never heard of him, you’ve heard his music. He made the banjo an instrument to be reckoned with in the three-finger picking style that he perfected and popularized on the instrument. As Chris Talbot writes in his AP tribute: “It is impossible to overstate the importance of Earl Scruggs to »